Italy is the second largest producer of mercury ore in the world. There are also large deposits of marble, granite and tuff in this country. But the rest of the bowels of Italy are rather stingy and this state has to buy raw materials for the development of metallurgy and other industries.
A small country Italy occupies a fairly advantageous geographical and geopolitical position. Over a third of the territory of this state belongs to the mainland, more than half - to the peninsular and more than 17% - to the island. Despite such a non-standard division of possessions, the country largely supports itself on its own.
Main natural resources of Italy
15% of the state's demand for natural gas is provided through deposits in the east of the country. Italy is forced to buy the missing part of the resources from neighboring countries. The deposits of coal and oil here are small and cannot cover the needs for fuel and energy resources.
Due to the lack of iron, chromite and manganese ores, this country ensures the efficiency of its ferrous metallurgy due to imported raw materials. However, there are quite large deposits of potash and sodium chloride here. This allows active trade in these products with many countries.
Of the mineral resources, it should be noted the presence of some reserves of polymetals: lead and zinc, mercury ore. The mined minerals are used both for their own production and for trade with other countries. Most of all, mercury ore is mined in Italy. The volume of reserves of this resource corresponds to the second place in the world. There is anthracite in the Valle d'Aosta region, but these deposits are small.
On the island of Sicily, the main resources of this country are being developed - potash and rock salt. Active work on the extraction of these minerals is taking place in the Carrar region. Recently, bauxite reserves were depleted, which were mined for a long time from the karst depressions of Apulia. Today, small deposits of this mineral are found in Liguria and the Central regions of the country.
The main wealth of the country is marble. Also in Italy there is a lot of tuff and granite. Sicily has sulfur in fairly large quantities. In the north of Tuscany there is a well-known deposit of Carrara marbles, which are used in this and foreign countries for the manufacture of monuments and decoration of mansions and public buildings.
What resources is Italy rich in?
This state does not experience a shortage of electricity due to excess water resources. They provide not only the operation of power plants, but also attract many tourists to the coast of Italy. The favorable climate also contributes to this. For this reason, the lion's share of income in the country comes from this particular field of activity.
