ID was no guarantee: gold miners, Australian nationality. The same names and surnames of the cyanide disaster of Santu Miali, in the promised lands of Furtei. After the collapse of "Sardinia Gold Mining", the company that managed the extraction of colloidal gold from the mountains close to Marmilla and Campidano, they ran away leaving the Region with the millionaire parcel of reclamations ever made. A few years after the criminal escape they set foot again in Sardinia, in disguise. In viale Trento, struck by fulminant amnesia and suicidal obstinacy, the doors were thrown open again. This time the authorization for mining abandoned the gold vein to focus on the historic one, lead-zinc.
Kangaroos in the mine
In those months the "four wheels" complete with a kangaroo in the corporate effigy roamed from Montevecchio to Campo Pisano, from Monteponi to Monte Agruxiau, from Ingurtosu to Buggerru. They always have their industrial "core drill" in tow, capable of "crystallizing" the stratigraphy of the soil down to the depths. The mission in the ancient Villa Ecclesiae, this time, however, is not strictly mining. The men of the bloodiest Klondike in the island's mining history had crossed the land of "Ad Metalla" to X-ray the "tails dams" that surround all the metal-bearing mining areas of Sardinia. For everyone they have always been the "red mountains", those that stand out imposingly like Egyptian pyramids at the entrance to Iglesias, at the entrance to the road to the mines. Exclusive scenographic impact, symbol of a civilization that no longer exists, but above all mountains of poisons imposed by mining and ready to dissolve into dust and mud over the years. Inside those "sterile dams", the same ones that the "kangaroos" want to "examine", however, there is everything and more. Those endless heaps of reddish and black dust are nothing more than lead and zinc extraction waste. They called it "flotation", for newbies the separation of galena waste from raw materials. The technology of the roaring twenties, however, was atavistic.
Forgotten field
The result was disarming: there were more metals that ended up in those "landfills" than those that were shipped to Portovesme, in the current Glencore metallurgical plant for the production of lead and zinc "ingots". In those impressive mountains of mud, positioned on the promontories next to the tunnels and mining plants, immense quantities of metals condensed, destined to be washed away over time, polluting and further devastating the area. The mine technicians, the shrewd and responsible ones, had also written it in unsuspecting times: inside those "dumps" there is an Eldorado of minerals. In fact, the new technologies would have allowed total extraction of those minerals, obtaining two results in one move: to reclaim those territories, preventing persistent pollution from runoff, and on the other, to supply the Portovesme plant, putting an end to the worldwide traffic of "industrial waste" destined for the production chain in Sulcis.
Australians doct
Nobody listened to him, in the Region they told him to mind their own business. They preferred to entrust the research to "King Rose Mining". It was 2011. The highly confidential report of the Australian results in Sardinia was penned by none other than John Morris, the man who went from director of the Furtei mine to head of the new Australian team. The operation is simple: measure the lead and zinc content in those landfills and "list" the company on the stock exchange, boasting a mining "concession" which, in reality, they never had.
Shot in the Stock Exchange
The communications to the London Metal Exchange, through the quarterly reports of the "King Rose Mining" are from a billionaire "coup": 100 million cubic meters of so-called tailings, in reality processing waste full of metals, starting with lead and zinc. The announcement in Piazza Affari is official: «The directors of King Rose Mining are pleased to announce that the company will begin pre-feasibility work on a very large tailings potential. A project to reprocess one of the largest mining districts in Europe on multiple deposits of tailings, zinc and lead, containing between 70-90 million tons of material accumulated over 200 years of mining.
Value 3.5 billion
The map is a financial "bomb". According to the Australian plan, those mountains of tailings contain an estimated 89.2 million tons of material with a content of 2.07% zinc and 0.56% lead. Translated: those heaps of dust contain over 1.8 million tons of zinc and almost 500,000 tons of lead. half a euro. After the blitz on the Stock Exchange and the vaunted credit on those concessions, the Australians fled again, this time without the loot, which remained enclosed in those "red mountains" between Monteponi and Montevecchio. Now, however, an unexpected and unprecedented scenario opens up.
Rare material alarm
Europe has sounded the alarm: the old continent imports from Beijing 97% of the rare earths it consumes for the ecological transition, with all the resulting risks. Italy, with serious delay, is moving. The task of recognizing the "mining" potential is entrusted to Ispra, the Higher Institute for Environmental Protection. The dossier is already ready, with a truth that leaves no doubts: Sardinia is the most promising land both for "Critical Materials" and for "Rare Earths".
Treasure Sardinia
They write it without reservations, starting precisely from those tailings dams loaded with “metals”: «Mining activities closed or abandoned prior to Legislative Decree 117/08 have left large quantities of extractive waste stored in storage facilities (landfill heaps and settling basins) even of considerable size. In the Sardinian mining district, the most important in Italy, there are about 70 million cubic meters, with a consequent high environmental impact». Ispra's proposal is explicit: «These deposits could represent an important source of secondary raw materials. They generally have good mineral potential, with even high levels as in the case of the red mud of Monteponi (Iglesias), for which an average zinc content of 7-8% is ascertained. In several cases the storage depots also contain interesting quantities of Critical Raw Materials (e.g. Rare Earths in Silius) but much still needs to be done in terms of characterization and total reuse of the materials».
“rare” challenge
An important challenge on which Sardinia could be called to play a very important game: to provide a decisive contribution on "Rare Earths" and "Critical Raw Materials", while planning the most impressive environmental remediation of the last 200 years. One of the most relevant discoveries in this international scenario concerns the mining site of Muscadroxiu, in Silius, in the Gerrei. Barite and fluorite have always been extracted from the historic mine, but today, however, the company that has the concession for those tunnels is planning to reopen the mine for the extraction of rare earths. The true Eldorado in Sardinia may have been discovered by the University of Ferrara in a marble quarry in Buddusò, defined by technicians as one of the most promising rare earth deposits in Europe. The university students write: “The granites of Buddusò are composed of 80% - 85% of quartz and feldspars, materials used for the ceramic and glass sectors. They also contain high percentages (up to 15%) of Allanite, a rare magmatic mineral which is characterized by being rich in rare earths and interesting quantities of Iron, Tantalum and Niobium. They are distinguished from other granites by useful concentrations of germanium and gallium, important elements for the production of green components». Last "constitutional" note, the primary and exclusive jurisdiction over the mines lies with the Region of Sardinia. Standing by would be an unforgivable strategic mistake.