Lithium Occurrence in Italy—An Overview

Abstract

Italy has no record of Li production, even though it is well known for its outstanding Li mineral specimens from the Elba Island pegmatites. Because of the current geopolitical situation, the opportunity for a systematic appraisal of resources is evident. Most European Li production comes from deposits associated with Late Paleozoic magmatic rocks. In Italy, such rocks occur extensively in Sardinia and Calabria, but their potential for Li is unknown, and deserves a more systematic exploration. Also of potential interest are the Permo–Triassic spodumene pegmatites in the Austroalpine units of the Central Alps. The Tertiary pegmatites (Elba Island and Central Alps) contain Li minerals, but do not appear large enough to warrant bulk mining. However, we notice that Tertiary–Quaternary magmatic rocks of the Tuscan and Roman magmatic provinces have systematically higher Li contents than those recorded in normal arc igneous rocks worldwide. Specifically, Tuscan granites contain up to 350 μg/g Li, mostly hosted by biotite (up to 4000 μg/g Li); the Capo Bianco aplite (Elba Island) contains up to 1000 μg/g. There are other small Li occurrences associated with Mn deposits and metabauxites, and there is a hypothetical potential for sediment-hosted deposits in the post-orogenic Lower Permian Alpine basins. However, the most promising potential seems to be associated with subsurface fluids. High-enthalpy fluids in geothermal fields may contain up to 480 mg/L Li. Lower-temperature thermal waters may also contain significant Li (>10 mg/L). Moreover, a visionary, but not impossible, perspective may consider a deep injection of water to interact with, and extract Li from, magmatic rocks.

Soft robotics towards sustainable development goals and climate actions

“…The group of robots endowed with an efficient network of sensors and detectors, integrated onboard or within the constitutive materials, may report data on non-surfacing marine beings, rising temperatures, changing currents, and plastic degradation (SDG-14) (Yeh et al, 2016;Herbert-read et al, 2017;Jaffe et al, 2017;Picardi et al, 2020). Nonetheless, we envisage other roles for these machines that could survey deep sea pools to retrieve raw minerals for sustainable industry (SDG-9) (Yang S. et al, 2018;Dini et al, 2022).…”

A Sustainable Process for Efficient Extraction of Lithium, Aluminum, and Phosphorus from Montebrasite

“…In Tuscany and Rome, Italy, researchers have discovered lithium deposits that can be exploited on a large scale. 35 The lithium minerals mainly include spodumene and montebrasite. 36 In the eastern Skellefte district in northern Sweden, 37 there are large reserves of crystalline spodumene veins, where a large amount of associated montebrasite ore has also been discovered.…”

“…Montebrasite deposits have also been discovered in the Almendra-Souto area and the Alvaros-Goncalo pegmatite vein in Portugal, and Lima and Almeida are conducting detailed investigation. In Tuscany and Rome, Italy, researchers have discovered lithium deposits that can be exploited on a large scale . The lithium minerals mainly include spodumene and montebrasite .…”