Learn Italian: Non ho ancora chiarito il malinteso, non è mica facile. - I haven't clarified the misunderstanding yet, it's not easy at all.

While non è facile just means 'it is not easy', adding mica gives it a stronger, emphatic meaning like 'it is not easy at all' or 'it is hardly easy'. It is very common in conversational Italian to push back against an assumption, implying here that someone might have thought fixing the situation would be simple.

Could I drop the non and just say mica è facile?

Yes, you can! The rule for mica is: if it comes after the verb, you must keep non before the verb (non è mica facile). But if you move mica before the verb, it completely replaces non (mica è facile). Both versions are perfectly correct and mean the exact same thing.

Why is ancora placed right in the middle of the verb ho chiarito?

In compound tenses like the passato prossimo, short adverbs of time like ancora (yet/still), già (already), and mai (never) usually sandwich themselves between the helping verb (ho) and the past participle (chiarito). You will sometimes see it at the end of the clause, but this middle position is the most natural.

il malinteso looks like a past participle. Is it acting as a noun here?