The government has approved a decree on critical raw materials, designed to bring national regulations on the mining sector in line with European targets and standards under the Critical Raw Materials Act regulation, according to digital and green transitions. The decree aims to analyze the country's demand and needs through supply chain monitoring activities and to boost the supply of raw materials. A national exploration program is launched. The State will issue the necessary permits, with better timelines than in the past. "We have identified 34 critical raw materials, according to the old maps in our territory there are at least 15 important ones," explains Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso. "We have important deposits, it will be a matter of seeing the conditions of extractability: think of cobalt, there is some in the Apennines between Piedmont and Liguria, from initial estimates it is relevant. But then the conditions of extractability will have to be evaluated case by case," adds Environment Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. Asked about the possibility of extracting lithium in Italy, he says, “Today there is China's control over ownership, extraction and processing. We now have to verify the size of our deposits. We also have to understand the cost-effectiveness in other EU countries compared to the extraction of this or that material”.
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