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The area encompassing the three distinct regions of Arburese-Guspinese, Iglesiente, and Sulcis is located in the southwestern part of Sardinia and covers an area of 2,455 km², which is 65% of the total area within the Sardinia Geomineral Park.
It is the largest area within the park and at the same time the most representative in terms of the spread, variety, and importance of the mining activities that have taken place over the past millennia.
From a mining perspective, the area has become one of the most important metalliferous districts in Western Europe due to the richness of mineral deposits, including lead, zinc, copper, silver, tin, manganese, and iron, which have been exploited since ancient times. In addition to metalliferous mines, the cultivation of barite, bentonite clay, and, above all, coal deposits, has been of particular interest.
The three areas constitute a well-defined reality within the island's landscape, characterized by an extensive coastal stretch rich in interesting and varied landscape-environmental features, from which emerge, at a short distance, several mountain ranges that rise with modest altitude above a predominantly hilly morphology, interrupted, in the central and southern regions, by the vast flat areas of Cixerri and Basso Sulcis.
The area was defined by early geologists as "the island within the island," primarily referring to the geological characteristics that encompass the entire series from Lower Paleozoic to Pleistocene, as well as the natural characteristics and the spread of environments of high scientific and cultural interest.
The area's values alternate between unique botanical species, caves, and cavities among the most important on the island, and a significant heritage of industrial and mining archaeology. In this geological, mining, scientific, landscape, and historical context, which is unparalleled in the Mediterranean, large engineering works were carried out in the past, which remain as testimony to the high level of technology achieved in this region of Sardinia.