Sole 24 Ore Posted on Wednesday, September 10 South.
The Region of Sicily can not get rid of 51% dell'Italkali S.pA. Mining held by the entity in liquidation Siciliano. A first notice of sale, in 2005, had foundered in court, forcing the region to cancel the sale of shares to the public of the Austrian Salinen.
In April, the second notice of sale was declared unsuccessful, although some companies (foreign and Sicilian) initially seemed interested. "Probably, - says liquidator of the EMS, Rosalba Alessi - was due to the fact that the 2007 budget has some losses. That is why I suggested waiting a few months of Industry alderman before making a new call, waiting to see if this year there will be improvements at the moment there seem to be. " Not everyone agrees with Alba Alessi. For example, Antonio Vitellaro, Chief Deputy dell'Italkali (whose board is appointed by private shareholders) argues that the real problem was the draft contract submitted to potential buyers.
The budget approved in late May, however, was certainly not among the best. Specializing in the cultivation and marketing of salt, the Italkali has seen the collapse of production from 1,047,179 tons in 2006 to tout venant just over 500 000 tonnes (tout venant is the mineral as it comes out from underground, before the transformation process). At the base of the fall, the weather too mild: it is little snow in Northern Italy than in central and northern Europe, traditional markets for road salt (what you spill on roads and motorways). This crisis, we must specify not only the Italkali but hit the entire industry at international level. Not surprisingly, back all'Italkali was mine in the province of Agrigento Realmonte to suffer the consequences heavier. The other two mining sites in Sicily, Petralia (near Palermo) Racalmuto (always in the province of Agrigento), gives a very pure salt, for food and industrial products, and have not undergone appreciable negative consequences. Mine Realmonte, the less pure salt which can only be used as antifreeze, is switching back from almost 600 000 tonnes in 2006 to less than 80 000 in 2007. This year things are a bit 'better. The data of the first half of 2008 say that production is equal to last year in Petralia, almost doubling in Racalmuto and also considerable growth in Realmonte, where the extraction of salt, however, was hampered by need to exhaust the stocks of the previous year. And to think that just Realmonte into the ground lies a good part of the future dell'Italkali. And 'where there is a substantial reservoir of Kain, for chemists a double salt of potassium and magnesium salt to commisto. In 2002 a study by the National Research Council estimated the size of deposits, estimate a life of about 40 years. Through a business process, from Kain can get potassium sulphate for use as fertilizer in agriculture. "It could help us - says Antonio Vitellaro - integrating it into international markets profitably. If only we let him do. " At the moment, however
the Italkali has 263 employees, 176 of them in Sicily (other 230 people in related work, including maintenance workers and transporters).
Few people know that the first to include the possibility of potassium sulphate from kainit were Italians. Its industrial process was in fact patented by Montecatini in the '60s. The first plant to implement it was to Campofranco in the province of Caltanissetta, where kainit reached by cable car from the mine of St. Cataldo. A story that ended in 1992, when Sicily was over illegal waste disposal potassium: the region had provided a pipeline to allow the discharge to the sea of \u200b\u200bwaste products (the so-called brine), but remained on paper. He must lead from the parts of Sciacca after crossing the territory of two provinces.
Italkali The new plant for the processing of Kain is expected to Porto Empedocles, in an area of \u200b\u200b220 thousand square meters in the industrial area (just behind the regasification terminal designed by ENEL Power). A scheme is expected to create 300 new jobs without considering the armature. He talks since December 2003 when the Italkali asked ASI to Agrigento assignment area. ASI meets a few days of not having availability. In March 2004 the company has submitted a contract proposal program in November and again claimed the area, this time at the Harbour. In December, the answer: the application can only be assessed after delivery of the areas by the SIA. It is indeed a mirror of the sea that the ASI should backfill and equip. Too bad that the work began over a decade ago, have not yet concluded. Consequently, the area remains in a sort of bureaucratic limbo, "given" to ASI, however, is the responsibility of the Harbour. So, in March 2005 Italkali try to cut off the head of the bull and is required to both institutions, but receive an equal waste. So much so that CIPE, in September, rejected the request for access to contracts for the program because the Italkali did not submit a "declaration of readiness of the ground." For Catuara Stefano, president of the SIA in Agrigento, the real problem is that "over the years, the story has never been addressed." The area required dell'Italkali, he says, ignores the floor of the ASI or applications from other industry groups, including Agrigento: "The only way to solve the problem - he said - would be a Memorandum of Understanding between the ASI The Master and the parties concerned to make compatible the different settlements. "
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