The season of metalliferous mines in full production, with thousands of miners is over. Although the deposits are still potentially usable, the machinery to excavate and cultivate the raw materials from which the metals are obtained are turned off. The number of miners has also gradually dwindled. The scenario, which contemplated small microcosms around each mine site, has changed. In the sector, which is worth a total of one hundred million, there are just over three thousand miners throughout Italy distributed in production sites in 14 regions. And among these Sardinia, with about 500 employees, is one of those that, with Piedmont, Tuscany and Sicily, has the highest number of employees. For the metal mines, most of which with underground activities, the closure came at the end of the 90s after a series of setbacks linked to a crisis born in the previous decade. The end of a cycle that in the 1980s saw the transition from private to public. The 1982 law with which the State attempted to relaunch the sector by deploying public resources to support its activity was also of little use. With this phase closed, a new course has begun for the metal mines. The tourist one. Much of the mining sites today are visited by thousands of tourists. It happens in Sulcis Iglesiente, in Masua, and in Buggerru where the old tunnels can be visited by tourists. Jewels of research and technology, such as the silos dug in the Porto Flavia cliff and the autopala invented in Montevecchio.
And it also happens in the Nuoro area. Here, however, the tourist experience joins that of technological and scientific research. At Sos Enattos, in fact, we look at experimentation for the study of gravitational waves.
Even for the last coal mine in Italy, mining has ended. The latest protest, complete with the occupation of the wells at a depth of 500 meters, extended the life of the site for a year. Then the stop to production and the start of a divestment program to avoid the infringement procedure. From that site we look to the future, with particular attention to scientific research, also because the infrastructural heritage built over the years has an important value. He sets off towards the road of a memory that is slowly moving away from the Sardinian gold mine season. The Australian company Sardinia gold mining had cultivated the site with an open-air method of work with the support of the regional subsidiary Progemisa. The adventure, which 24 years ago saw the melting of the first gold bar, ended after ten years, the entry of a Canadian group in place of the Australian one and a production of 5 tons of gold, 6 thousand of silver and 20 thousand of copper. Then the closure and the protests. Plan for the rehabilitation and redevelopment of the mountain, shortened by 40 meters, and of the dams. Works for 70 million to be diluted over the years in anticipation of a new trip. Between environment and memories.