They were looking for feldspars to make ceramics, in an instant they found themselves challenging China. In the ancient land of granite, on the fragile border between the provinces of Sassari and that of Gallura, quarries are as strategic as the bread oven. Always an environmental cross and economic development, an ancestral dispute between the second and third workings of a stone which, on the other hand, very often leaves the island in gigantic blocks to be worked elsewhere. Here also Loelle, the partly corridor and partly "tholos" nuraghe that overlooks the landscape, places its horizon and its roots on a granite outcrop that emerges impetuously from this ancient land. Over time, the advance of explosives and more advanced techniques have scarred the landscape, very often wounded without any posthumous "medication". Back in the day, environmental rehabilitation and landscape restoration weren't topics on the agenda.
Mend the "rips"
When the new quarry face opened there was almost never a plan to heal that gash in the rock. Over the years, however, the awareness that the environmental and landscape heritage could not be plundered without a future has forced everyone, both public and private, to rethink two fundamental questions: the recovery of all waste materials, with the reuse in economic and environmental key, and the landscape "reconnection" of those "rips" on the landscape. Giovanni Soro took care of it, granite in his blood, a life between explosions and open-air mines in the Buddusò district.
50% waste
He has always been aware that he has in his hands not only a stone quarry, but also a great potential for "waste", almost 50% of that extracted. For everyone, until recently, it was just a waste from industrial processing. The step between intuition and research passes between the modern "stills" of the University of Ferrara and field analyzes in Giovanni Soro's quarry. The goal is to combine the search for feldspars, useful for the large ceramic industry, unfortunately located beyond the Tyrrhenian Sea, and the economic "enhancement" of that mountain of scraps of "granitoid ornamental rocks". Out of the blue, what was supposed to be a plan for recycling waste materials linked to the processing of the noble Gallura stone turned into a global challenge.
"Rare" Secrets
The documents of the "Critical Raw Materials Technical Table" of the Ministry of Enterprise, the one that used to be of Industry, on the basis of article six of the founding decree, are classified. The maps are armored, as if they were a world war chessboard, that of the "rare earths". The red dots are located in predestined areas, which have always been mines to extract all kinds of stone or quarries to be emptied with sticks. The coordinates in the hands of the "mining secret services" are limited. In Sardinia, in addition to the barren dams of the Sulcis and the rare earths of the Silius mine, there is an imposing circle in the "granite" area of Buddusò.
Buddusò dossier
It didn't take long for the Mining Task Force to open the dossier of the new promised lands. The plan is put on paper by the University of Ferrara. The microscope analysis starts with the "Recycling of granite scapes" project, financed with European Life funds.
The discovery
When they understand that there is much more to those materials, the war in Ukraine and the clash over rare materials have already reached a point of no return. The names and surnames of those substances emerge one after the other, like a chemical-mineralogical tongue twister. Initials and codes never heard before, in the land of Sardinia. All minerals, however, contained in the list penned by the European Ursula, the lady Von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission called to manage the energy transition in wartime, the real one.
The turning point
Hence the second and decisive project by Buddusò: "Waste treatment: procurement of Critical Raw Materials from waste landfills of ornamental granite rocks". A full-fledged plan already included in the European chessboard to contrast the total dependence, 97%, on the Chinese "Rare Earths". The reports on the ministerial and community tables report a definition that leaves no room for doubt: in the Buddusò granite quarry in Sardinia there is one of the most important potential deposits of critical raw materials in Europe. The study is explicit in the premise: we were looking for feldspars.
Allanite superstar
The researchers write: «According to studies conducted by the University and financed by the European project, the granites of Buddusò are composed of 80%-85% of quartz and feldspars, materials used for the ceramic and glass production sector» . It is the following passage that explains the grandeur of the discovery: «They also contain good percentages of Allanite, a rare magmatic mineral which is characterized by being rich in rare earths (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, samarium and neodymium) and also quantities of iron , Tantalum and Niobium. These granites are distinguished from others for also containing useful concentrations of germanium and gallium, important elements for the production of green economy components such as solar panels for example». A real mineralogical nucleus whose dimensions are still unknown, but which can hold surprising results. The researchers from Ferrara do not comment on the veins that may contain that type of granite and material, but it is clear that geology has a physical continuity and that discovery cannot be just an isolated coincidence.
“rare” deposit
In fact, it is the quantities that give the granite "landfills" of Buddusò a significant dimension on a European scale and beyond. In the granites of Buddusò, composed of 80%-85% of quartz and feldspars, in fact, very significant quantities of minerals defined as being of high technological interest have emerged. The first and most important signal is the presence in those stones of a high percentage, up to 15%, of Allanite, a rare magmatic mineral, rich in rare earths, from lanthanum to cerium, from praseodymium to samarium and neodymium. In those same samples there is no shortage of interesting quantities of iron, tantalum and niobium, with considerable useful concentrations of germanium and gallium. It is precisely that significant quantity of Allanite found in the quarry under study, with all the related substances, that gives the Buddusò scrap landfills an unexplored value that is opening an unprecedented window on the international chessboard of "Rare Earths". However, it is too early to say that this abundance concerns all Sardinian granite, but the potential, today more than ever, will be subjected to X-rays.
“genetic” code
The genetic-geological code of the granite bodies in Sardinia, still in Buddusò or in the center and south of the island, could have the same potential, but according to the scholars of the University of Ferrara there are not many. The European viewfinder is now focused on the island, with a not insignificant detail, the constitutional competence is entirely regional. It is all too clear, however, that in this race for rare earths the greed of the energy lobbies cannot and must not prevail, ready to unscrupulously raid once again the head of Sardinia. Recovering the landscape, reusing granite scraps to valorise rare earths, makes sense. Looting territory is forbidden, even in times of war.
