After 100 years of copper manufacture in the foundry at Fornaci di Barga, the KME is shutting down the furnaces at the start of the new year and a vital part of history for their area will be no more.
The shock news was announced today but apparently the 600 strong workforce should not be worried as the industry is just about to make a huge leap into the future.
What is planned in Fornaci di Barga is the transformation of the site into the biggest European plant in hydroponic agriculture.
KME are claiming that over the last 10 years losses amounted to more than 200 million Euros and they had invested a further 130 million euros with the production of copper.
According to todays KME statement, the foundry at Fornaci (whose production, laminates and specialty products, will be transferred to Germany “to optimise the production capacity”) will be transformed and on the area of 40 hectares will be built, “a hydroponic plant that will employ 400 employees with a planned investment of 50/60 million euro over the next three years. ”
Hydroponics is a subset of hydroculture and is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only, or in an inert medium, such as perlite or gravel.
The two main types of hydroponics are solution culture and medium culture. Solution culture does not use a solid medium for the roots, just the nutrient solution. The three main types of solution cultures are static solution culture, continuous-flow solution culture and aeroponics. The medium culture method has a solid medium for the roots and is named for the type of medium, e.g., sand culture, gravel culture, or rockwool culture.
There are two main variations for each medium, sub-irrigation and top irrigation. For all techniques, most hydroponic reservoirs are now built of plastic, but other materials have been used including concrete, glass, metal, vegetable solids, and wood. The containers should exclude light to prevent algae growth in the nutrient solution.
The KME statement went on to say that the project is a “practical business revival plan with real prospects of stable and lasting success for all stake holders”, and the Group was confident “that the social partners involved will want to know and share choices innovative proposals, which will have much more chance of success because more will be the result of the constructive and cooperative spirit. ”
