The Italy Mining Industry

Although Italy was relatively poor in mineral resources, it was, nevertheless, the largest producer of feldspar, and pumice and related materials, the eighth-leading producer of crude steel, the tenth-leading producer of cement (second-largest in the EU), and a leading producer of dimension stone and marble, and continued to supply a significant portion of its own need for some minerals. Industrial mineral production, including construction materials, was the most important sector of the economy. Italy has been a significant processor of imported raw materials, and a significant consumer and exporter of mineral and metal semimanufactured and finished products. The third and fourth-ranking industries in 2002 were, respectively, the production of iron and steel, and chemicals manufacture. Benefiting from the Italy advance mining crushing plant and grinding and mining concentrate plant techniques, Chemicals and minerals and nonferrous metals were leading export commodities. Mining output has increased 12% from 1990 to 2000.

In addition, Italy produced antimony oxides, gold (from Sardinia), mine lead, mine manganese, bromine, crude clays (including white bentonite, or montmorillonite, refractory, fuller's earth, kaolin, and kaolinitic earth), diatomite, gypsum, lime, nitrogen, perlite, mineral pigments, salt (marine, rock, and brine), sand and gravel (including volcanic sand and silica sand), soda ash, sodium sulfate, stone (alabaster, dolomite, granite, limestone, marble, marl, quartz, quartzite, sandstone, serpentine, and slate), sulfur, and white talc and related materials. No zinc was mined in 1999 or 2000, and potash production remained suspended in 2000 because of a severe drought, causing restricted availability of groundwater, and because of environmental and ecological concerns, causing an inability to remove waste material and mine water. But the mining crushing, grinding and mineral concentrate industries are still very active.
Marble and travertine quarrying from the famous mines in the Massa and Carrara areas was still significant. Marble was quarried at hundreds of locations from the Alps to Sicily. The most important white-marble-producing area was in the Apuan Alps, near Carrara, and accounted for one-third of the country's 100,000 tons of white marble. Important colored-marbleproducing areas included the Lazio region, Lombardy, the Po Valley, Puglia, Sicily, Venice, and Verona-Vincenza. Reserves of several types were considered to be unlimited; half of the country's output was in block from, and half was exported.

The mining and extractive industries are dominated by the production of industrial minerals. Italy is one of the largest cement producers in the EU, an important producer of bentonite and monmorillonite clay (both mined mainly in Sardinia) and a significant producer of feldspar and feldspathic clays. These are important constituents of ceramic tiles and Italy accounts for as much as 50% of EU output. Italy is famous for its marble, most notably for the white marble quarried near Carrara in the Apuan Alps of Tuscany, but there are hundreds of quarrying operations spread across Italy exploiting coloured marbles. Other important industrial minerals products include pumice (on the island of Lipari off the north coast of Sicily), pozzolan and talc.
Italy no longer produces coal - formerly some lignite had been produced at the state-owned Santa Barbara mine in Tuscany. It now relies wholly on imports for its coal needs.
Italy is no longer a significant metal miner but is an important producer of metals based on the processing of imported ores and concentrates. In September 2003, Glencore International AG announced that it will close the Porto Vesme zinc-lead smelting and refining complex in Sardinia as a consequence of high electricity charges which have forced it to operate at only 80-90% of capacity.

Production totals for the leading minerals in 2000 were: feldspar, 2.5 million tons; barite, 30,000 tons, down from 80,463 in 1996; fluorspar (acid-grade and metallurgical-grade), 65,000 tons, down from 125,800 in 1997; hydraulic cement, 34 million tons; pumice and pumiceous lapilli, 600,000 tons (from Lipari Island, off the northern coast of Sicily); and pozzolan, 4 million tons (from Lipari). Alumina production (calcined basis) has risen sharply, from 699,635 tons in 1987 to 881,000 in 1996, to 950,000 in 2000. In addition, Italy produced antimony oxides, gold (from Sardinia), mine lead, mine manganese, bromine, crude clays (including white bentonite, or montmorillonite, refractory, fuller's earth, kaolin, and kaolinitic earth), diatomite, gypsum, lime, nitrogen, perlite, mineral pigments, salt (marine, rock, and brine), sand and gravel (including volcanic sand and silica sand), soda ash, sodium sulfate, stone (alabaster, dolomite, granite, limestone, marble, marl, quartz, quartzite, sandstone, serpentine, and slate), sulfur, and white talc and related materials. No zinc was mined in 1999 or 2000, and potash production remained suspended in 2000 because of a severe drought, causing restricted availability of groundwater, and because of environmental and ecological concerns, causing an inability to remove waste material and mine water.

Marble and travertine quarrying from the famous mines in the Massa and Carrara areas was still significant. Marble was quarried at hundreds of locations from the Alps to Sicily. The most important white-marble-producing area was in the Apuan Alps, near Carrara, and accounted for one-third of the country's 100,000 tons of white marble. Important colored-marbleproducing areas included the Lazio region, Lombardy, the Po Valley, Puglia, Sicily, Venice, and Verona-Vincenza. Reserves of several types were considered to be unlimited; half of the country's output was in block from, and half was exported.

Zenith Crusher Equipments In Italy

Shanghai Zenith Company, as one professional mining crushing and grinding equipments manufacturer, has good market in this Italy.
In Modena, our PE750X1060 Jaw crushers usually was installed in 100~150 Tons/Hour crushing plant. And get high reputation from our customers’ feed back.
In Carrara in the Apuan Alps of Tuscany, our portable crushing plant (including portable jaw crusher and portable cone crusher) are also very popular. According to cusomers’ feedback, the portable crushing plant are well fit for the local special environments.
And in some other quarries, different ZENITH products are used in various stone crushing and mining grinding and concentrate plants.
To know more details and to find the best solution and suitable crushing and grinding equipments, just be free to contact us.