As a technician I try to illustrate my geopolitical vision on why there is a lack of raw materials worldwide, recalling that today the technologies used in the mining sector are very advanced compared to yesterday despite the fact that mining companies lack a unified vision and often struggle to use the scarce resources made available on digital investments. However, despite the mistrust of many mining companies, I would like to point out that it is still possible, especially in this world scenario, to complete any process of technological innovation that is constantly evolving, as is digitization, which is now possible even in 6G mode [where, compared to 5G, speeds of about 206.25 gigabits per second can be reached] as well as artificial intelligence, on which I urge you to pay your attention, because these are the technologies that will help us change many things quickly to get more efficient mines. In fact, by integrating more access technologies, covering a larger physical space, it is by providing the best basic capacity, such as communication, to be able to go up to the great depths of the subsoil and the sea, with modern equipment that will be increasingly mechanized, in robotic mode, supporting multiple services, not only necessary for excavation, but all this also contributes to greater operator safety and all in "Green" mode. This is where the policy must be concentrated, towards the company, helping it, with new targeted investments and new regulations, to evolve its organizational characteristics over time and therefore its ability to manage innovation processes, through the modification of new proposals of law to help us coordinate research and innovation on a global level and not for the conquest of new territories, through absurd wars. The earth's subsoil and the seabed are the resources of all of us and, starting with the creation of a virtual union, worldwide, in which we will all be interconnected and, if we can manage the flow of data in reproducing any object, created to support the reproduction of mixed mining environments between real and virtual, with human-machine interaction in real time, we can really have a significant reduction in costs and very reduced times, in a controlled way, in search of all those minerals that we need, including the "Rare Earths", even without the use of manpower and with the use of fewer and fewer components. However, my intent is only to begin to do some clarity with you, to make environmental friends better understand and not only that the ways in which environmental issues are addressed today are currently only instrumental, borrowed from some politicians and from politics, because, these gentlemen still have not realized what we are talking about and discussing.

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Title: Geopolitics and the difficulty of procuring raw materials
by Lamanna Luigi Franco (*)
Premise
As a technician I try to illustrate my geopolitical vision on why there is a lack of raw materials
worldwide, recalling that today the technologies used in the mining sector are very advanced
compared to yesterday despite the fact that mining companies lack a unified vision and often
struggle to use the scarce resources made available on digital investments.
However, despite the mistrust of many mining companies, I would like to point out that it is still
possible, especially in this world scenario, to complete any process of technological innovation
that is constantly evolving, as is digitization, which is now possible even in 6G mode [where,
compared to 5G, speeds of about 206.25 gigabits per second can be reached] as well as artificial
intelligence, on which I urge you to pay your attention, because these are the technologies that
will help us change many things quickly to get more efficient mines.
In fact, by integrating more access technologies, covering a larger physical space, it is by providing
the best basic capacity, such as communication, to be able to go up to the great depths of the
subsoil and the sea, with modern equipment that will be increasingly mechanized, in robotic
mode, supporting multiple services, not only necessary for excavation, but all this also contributes
to greater operator safety and all in "Green" mode.
This is where the policy must be concentrated, towards the company, helping it, with new targeted
investments and new regulations, to evolve its organizational characteristics over time and
therefore its ability to manage innovation processes, through the modification of new proposals
of law to help us coordinate research and innovation on a global level and not for the conquest of
new territories, through absurd wars.
The earth's subsoil and the seabed are the resources of all of us and, starting with the creation of
a virtual union, worldwide, in which we will all be interconnected and, if we can manage the flow
of data in reproducing any object, created to support the reproduction of mixed mining
environments between real and virtual, with human-machine interaction in real time, we can
really have a significant reduction in costs and very reduced times, in a controlled way, in search
of all those minerals that we need, including the "Rare Earths", even without the use of manpower
and with the use of fewer and fewer components.
However, my intent is only to begin to do some clarity with you, to make environmental friends
better understand and not only that the ways in which environmental issues are addressed today
are currently only instrumental, borrowed from some politicians and from politics, because, these
gentlemen still have not realized what we are talking about and discussing.
Cost of the "green revolution"
Dear environmental friends, unfortunately today your "green revolution" has costs that are around
5,000 / 6,000 billion a year, that's a lot of money that you send to the sector Lobbies, in the code
name of a future ecological disaster, which only serves [for politics] to endorse, as someone before
me in the year 2020 who wanted to underline in a very simple way, that it is only a <<… epochal

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transition in terms of creation and exploitation of energy resources … >> to legitimize a new phase
of indiscriminate exploitation, without any control of costs, resources, raw materials, present in
the subsoil and in the seabed of our planet earth.
Furthermore, it must be pointed out that the concept of raw materials is seen only as an absolute
value, while in reality much depends exclusively on the economy of a certain geographical area
and the resources it possesses, relying heavily on the combination of the supply risk and not. , as
I am continually repeating, in addition to being endorsed by a certain policy, which tells us that
there is a scarce availability of "raw materials" in the earth's subsoil and that the problem must be
tackled through a "transition" [wrong at least in the terms in which it is currently debated].
I'm sorry what I'm going to write but, I do not think in the least that this is the real and only problem today
because, in my opinion, it is only a problem wanted and created by a certain politics, at an international
level, which is helping to ride all levels, in a global way, to the devastation of hundreds of ecosystems, which
in reality, even if there are problems of integration of data from multiple systems, there are immediate
alternatives to solutions of very advanced technologies so that this does not happen.
The innovation processes of these technologies are a set of activities that use appropriate
resources: made up of knowledge, financial resources, human and non-human resources, but in
the way the "transition" is described and requested, public opinion is still convinced that there are
no other ways to go, while in reality this is not the case.
Constraints on Russian gas
I would like to point out to you that I do not believe that the current sanctions against Russia, in
the context of the war in Ukraine, can negatively affect the entire global world, pointing out,
through two quick examples, that the economy of the Congo, in which underground minerals are
extracted such as cobalt, copper and uranium and also gold, of which the latter is present in large
quantities especially in the regions south of Kivu and in Ituri, a geographical area where extracts
Coltan [Columbite-Tantyl two minerals of the oxide class] which attracts the attention of many
international buyers, and Chile, as a second example, whose subsoil is rich in minerals such as
copper, iron, molybdenum, lead, zinc , gold, silver, lithium and coal, where the mining activity of
these two countries, I am not aware that countries, both so far away, are bound to Russian gas.
In Chile, in the city of Calama, just 9 kilometers away lies the largest open pit mine in the world,
called “Chuquicamata”. This city has a high level of contamination and is one of the most polluted
cities in the country.
In this country the main cause of death is "cancer" and there are more than 2 thousand cases of
respiratory diseases during the winter. To quantify who will fall ill due to arsenic breathed in years
of work, but also of life in the village, is not possible today. The licensed entrepreneur himself has
been forced to admit that the chances are high and that diseases often appear even after years.
Just as he admits that at the moment no reclamation of the territory is planned and that the winds
(which blow very strongly throughout Chile) constantly bring dust even to the town of “Calama”.
To have therefore moved workers and families 9 kilometers seems for many only a palliative
[excerpt from an Editorial by Alice Pistolesi].
While in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 64% of mining is concentrated, in 2016 Amnesty
International and African Resources Watch denounced the unacceptable working conditions to
which workers are forced.

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Because I have deliberately underlined these two human tragedies, because we need to
start doing something concrete also in terms of safety and, in my opinion, I will illustrate,
following, a simple dust abatement in the open-cast mining sector.
Let's start with a simple example, using a mine as a model, like that of “Chuquicamata”;
sophisticated technologies are not needed, but if there is a desire to start doing
something, it is sufficient to study a continuous rain irrigation system or by using spray
guns, a mixture of water and polymeric additives, where the latter are inert, not dangerous
for man and nature because, these are biodegradable resinous products which, if used
correctly and cleanly, do not cause any damage to workers and the nearby population,
which is usually not far away, pointing out that the winds, if the soil is left untreated, they
can carry these contaminated dusts many kilometers away.
I would like to point out that this type of mixture, for the surrounding environment, i.e.
the soil, does not remain soaked in water with puddles and mud, so it does not hinder
work.
Furthermore, I would like to point out that these powders, which damage human health,
also have negative effects on all parts of the engines of any equipment or means of work
present in the mining area, where, in an open pit mine, like the one mentioned above,
there are many hundreds of units of vehicles, so we have a higher management expense.
In the underground mines can be used, during the traditional excavation phase, dust
collectors with air filtration systems capable of operating autonomously to support
primary ventilation systems. This solution offers maximum flexibility and guarantees the
proper treatment of any type of dust. Traditional excavation filtering systems are also
mobile and can be located in strategic points in order to ensure effective dust collection
directly from the source.
Personal experience
I can point out that I have been able to personally see that, although there are simple
solutions to be adopted, such as the one illustrated above, unfortunately the abatement
of dust is unfortunately applied in very few mining companies, many times due to costs
that entrepreneurs, in particular those who work in the open-cast mining sector, do not
want to support, not out of carelessness, but only because they need to reduce
indiscriminate price increases due to other factors, so they are one of the voices on the
reasons for the increase in prices, not only for the extractive products.
Unfortunately, the real problem, as someone before me said, is the ancient struggle
between work and the environment, between great economic interests and the protection
of the territory [while for others it is just a territorial conquest].
Danger of air pollution [environmental]
Air pollution, this too seems to be a big problem, but in my opinion it is in the opposite sense,
because if "politics" allowed the technological process to develop and do more, without being
bound to other surrounding interests, many problems of extraction and processing of raw
materials, could disappear and be solved in no time, in just one decade.

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I want to point out to environmentalist friends that CO2 is not a polluting gas, but a natural trace
gas that is part of the atmosphere and nourishes plant species.
Therefore, through this illustration, on my vision, we try to better understand whether there may
be a serious environmental danger or something else behind the massive mining activity.
Traduzione vocale
Fig. 01 - Percentages of Russia's exports to the West, especially to Europe, before the conflict with Ukraine. These are very
demanding quantities but we can see that most of them are metals.
We begin to develop something concrete to draw up, all together, including environmentalists,
through a concrete and productive comparison, of the new extractive directives, without fear of
hiding from a reality different from the one that strangely is told to us today, to make changes to
the legislation and regulations in force, where this common effort should be made at the level of
international law by addressing the challenges that the technological world makes available to us,
including social, human and environmental resources related to the procurement of raw
materials.
With an appropriate use of the advanced technologies in our possession, today it is possible not
to cut down the forests indiscriminately, not to have the drying up of rivers or lagoons, thus ending
up creating a serious impact on flora and fauna, not to continue to poison and polluting the sea
[due to indiscriminate fishing and the presence of toxic waste of all kinds], remembering that there
have been regulations on this sector for some years, but that they are not applied due to lack of
controls.
Furthermore, air pollution such as that of the soil, where I would like to bring to your attention, as
an example on this last point, to remind you that the technology for dust suppression has existed
for decades [as already illustrated above], problem which is pointed out by environmentalists, and
of which they refer to the dust produced by coal mining.
Therefore, I would like to suggest to every government, whose territory is involved, to employ
their own young people, to be vigilant; that is, the guardians of every mining facility, to verify the
correct use of the extractive directives, in safety, instead of sending them to make absurd and
incomprehensible wars, at least for me.

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It is also necessary to train these young and capable supervisors of the territory, on a voluntary
basis, for a period of time of at least 2 years, as if it were a military conscription.
This is my second vision of the beginning of the true green and / or ecological transition and non-
sterile speeches, such as those heard in previous years, which indicate hysterical solutions, such
as the one on the total stop of the global economy that brings us back, following this message, to
have catastrophic economic consequences worldwide.
Friends, believe me, it will not be climate change that, according to an analysis made by scientists
"outside the pack", is the main cause of many economic problems because these climate changes
have unfortunately always followed their own cyclicality.
Rare Earths
Before continuing in the scenario on the arguments, which are the subject of this article, I would
like to focus briefly on "Rare Earths", a topic that I have dealt with several times through the
publication of various articles, because I would like to explain to the readers the three acronyms
behind which hide various chemical elements present in the subsoil, with similar characteristics.
The "Rare Earths" are widely used in the aerospace and military, steel, medical fields and in the
manufacture of batteries for electric cars.
The ingredients of these minerals are fundamental for some of the technological solutions in the
fight against the climate crisis, but unfortunately they are indicated as highly polluting and non-
renewable.
In fact, we have recently been able to verify that this can happen if a wrong refining of the mineral
is done, done by unscrupulous entrepreneurs, who are those who fall into integration problems,
because they employ highly risky procedures for the surrounding ecosystem, pouring in rivers or
in the soil, polluting products, only to significantly lower their investment costs.
Unfortunately, behind this scandalous process, very critical arguments can arise from political
propaganda, which has nothing to do with environmental propaganda.
Let me take as an example the supply of energy, that which comes from renewable sources, and
which, even today, have not been disclosed and it is not known what these renewable sources
are, how reliable they are and above all how much they cost.
As you can well understand, even on the energy and climate issue and on renewable sources there
is no clarity, whose dissemination task should be done by the local political forces of each Western
country.
I repeat, there is no careful analytical disclosure of problems and resolution technology, where
the latter being very expensive, everyone is afraid of risking to disclose their public spending and
investment programs, in detail, but unfortunately it is not disclosed what is the expense item
against environmental pollution; this lack of disclosure is not justifiable, and is seen as pure
financial media speculation.
Therefore I would like to point out, as I have repeatedly repeated that, despite the name of "Rare
Earths" - "strategic but non-renewable resources" - these minerals are widespread in the depths
of the earth's crust and in the seabed and, the main problem is their extraction it is constituted by
the fact that they are bound, ie they are coupled [in low concentrations] within other minerals or

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in the form of compounds [so there are no mines or deposits of only “Rare Earths”] and therefore
very difficult to extract.
Specifically, the acronyms are:
- REE [Rare Earths Elements], means to indicate the "Rare Earths", bearing in mind that they are
not so rare from the point of view of the quantity present in the subsoil, and are a group of 15
elements (lanthanides) plus yttrium and scandium;
- the "Rare Earths" in turn are divided into LREE, Light Rare Earths, which include scandium, and
the elements from lanthanum to gadolinium, and HREE, Heavy Rare Earths, which include yttrium
and the remaining lanthanides;
- while PGMs, are part of the metals of the platinum group, of which ruthenium, rhodium,
palladium, osmium and iridium.
Therefore, in continuing with the main subject of the article, I would like to point out that
the problem of the increase in the price of raw materials and the difficulty of supply, today
indicated as the main causes of this inflationary situation, are different, and must be
sought on some direct consequences of the pandemic, largely due to Covid-19 and others
more linked to a discourse of lack of economic policy planning, favoring a chain reaction
that has led everyone to multiply their profit margins with the excuse of offset the higher
production costs.
In fact, with the [controlled] collapse of production, the "monsters" present in the finance
sector, as expected, began to speculate on raw materials, thanks also to a dollar that
began to be particularly weak, therefore [the materials prime] have become a very
interesting and convenient investment for them alone.
Fig. 02 - This table illustrates the distribution of elements in the subsoil on the earth's crust in ppm. We note the
abundance of aluminum and the scarcity of iridium (Source: E.Polo, CNR-ISOF)
Therefore, those who have focused on recovery, in particular the finance of the "free
market" companies [retailers, which are always companies, as already written, invented
by the world of politics that serve to influence all the squares, creating a surcharge for
satisfy all financial operators and retailers who have purchased raw materials in advance,

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exchanging them several times, before reaching the end user, thus also subtracting value
from the "free market"], have purchased large quantities, if not the he entire extractive
production of some mines, at low prices and now they are reselling them at exorbitant
figures, causing prices and world inflation to increase uncontrollably, in the most
industrialized countries, without any restraint. A simple upward speculation that has
helped destabilize the dramatically disordered commodity market and undermined by the
law of the fittest.
Conclusion
I begin this conclusion, also referring to what was said by an operator in the sector who held the
role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Rockwell Automation Qualitative Research:
<< ... I am absolutely certain that a company that does not seriously undertake the path of digital
transformation today will no longer exist in 10 years ... companies that go further will keep their
investment for five, six years ... and in the end they will gain a competitive advantage…>
This is a crucial development of a high-impact and definition virtual reality for the global spread of
the internet even in the most remote mining recesses of the planet, becoming a driving force in
the global digital economy.
Instead, as regards the E.U., the largest western industrialized community, this has indicated the
introduction of digitalization no earlier than 2030 and is committed to guaranteeing access to fiber
and the implementation of the 5G, used today for only 4% by European users, not taking into
account that the great challenge of geopolitical competition on 6G has already begun.
I would like to point out that the E.U. it is the one that is most affected by this ongoing increase-
collapse, in my opinion driven by an incapable and incompetent policy, and by a parallel market. I
note that all 27 countries, from the EU alone, produce less than 4% of the world's mineral raw
materials, while its industry consumes a total of about 30% of these raw materials.
Furthermore, the European Union is subject to particularly high imports, which even more than
the U.S.A. they are suffering from their dependence on China for "Rare Earths" and other critical
raw materials needed for high-tech applications.
The E.U. instead of strongly promoting the digital transformation of industries and accelerating
the governance and security systems of the digital economy and effectively expanding
international cooperation, it is concerned with being listened to as the promoter of the "green
energy transition", as outlined in the Green European Deal, transition based on the great use of
"Rare Earths".
However, the now known difficulties of recovering the "Rare Earths", raw materials so insidious
that, they collide with the important objectives, to have a circular economy set by the 2030
Goals of the O.N.U. and by the Green Deal itself, on which our criticism has already been
renewed, to set a 55% net cut in emissions for the year 2030, a choice deemed insufficient by
the Greens, as sector specialists have always maintained and written, who have more
experience of the undersigned, but which, in my opinion, do not take into account the
catastrophic consequences of the destruction of the global economy, such as that of closing
mines, in the name of non-progress and green transition. This is certainly not a good strategy,
at least feasible in the short term.

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It is therefore necessary, as written above in the introduction, to focus absolutely on
technological progress, through a renewed attention to increasing the innovative capacities of
companies within the European needs, which must proceed towards a form of technological
self-sufficiency, also because, a large part of the policies world economies are the result of a
very specific geopolitical strategy rather than an actual technical, scientific or environmental
need, as well as a deceptive narrative, as I have always maintained, of the Green Economy.
<< ... Raw materials have become a geopolitical problem, we need them like the air we breathe
... >>, said Hans-Peter Keitel, president of the German Industrial Association.
(*) Luigi Franco, LAMANNA
- Independent Technical Consultant in the sector of Tunnelling, Mining and Underground Technology
- President of the Fondazione Internazionale di Centro Studi e Ricerche, No-Profit
132, via dei Serpenti, 00184 ROMA, Italy, U.E.
Email: lamannaluigifranco1@gmail.com