While Antonio was pondering the Dutchman next door, good news circulated in Rome in the government.

The news of the discovery of a large iron ore in Libya has been confirmed by professional explorers to be true. And this iron ore mine in Sabha is not only 100 million tons, but 3.8 billion tons of mineable reserves, which is not excellent news for Italy.

Of course, the discovery of this large iron ore is not only good news, it is located in the hinterland next door to the desert, nearly 500 kilometers away from the coast, and it is not difficult for the transportation link.

There are also differing opinions within the Government on whether or not to exploit it. The main reason is also the issue of cost, because according to the opinion of experts from the Ministry of Transport, if the iron ore is to be extracted, then it is necessary to build a nearly 800-kilometer-long load-carrying railway.

The construction of such a long railway will be a significant investment for Italy. In particular, the high maintenance cost of the desert railway will also push up the price of high-speed rail mines, although there is also the advantage of lower cost of open-pit mining, but according to the estimates of professionals, the price of iron ore that eventually arrives in the mainland will not be much lower than that of iron ore purchased from Germany, at most 15% lower.

It is normal for many people to have different opinions on this after spending so much money on the price.

Because it is very simple, the cost of building a standard gauge laden railway across the desert for 800 kilometers is between 90 million and 1.3 billion lire. The reason why the gap is so big is mainly to include the railway, including the anti-sarin on both sides. In addition, due to the desert terrain, the annual maintenance cost will be higher than that of other railways, requiring at least 6 million lire per year.

Taking into account the current load of trains, a load train can now pull up to 400 tons of cargo, and at the calculation of three trains per hour, it is only 14,000 tons a day. Of course, this is ideal, and the ability to send out 10,000 tons of cargo per day is very good, which can be called a model of Italian railway operation. Because of overhaul and maintenance, the laden railway simply can't do that much, unless it's double-tracked, but this will further push up the cost of railway construction.

With the goal of transporting 3 million tonnes of iron ore per year, the cost of transporting each tonne of ore by rail alone would cost 51-58 lira (locomotive maintenance, and other costs such as coal).

If you add the cost of shipping, loading and unloading and mining, it will directly push up to about 38 lira per ton, and the average price of iron ore purchased by Italy from abroad is 42 lira, taking the same type of Luxembourg class II iron ore from Sabha iron ore as an example, the price per ton is 428 lira.

"That's a saving of 48 lire per tonne, or three million tons a year, which is just over 14 million lire, and after deducting the investment in railway construction and iron mining, it basically takes 20 years to recoup the investment."

In the palace, Carlo, who had just finished his honeymoon, listened to the Prime Minister's report on the costs and benefits of iron ore mining.

It wasn't until the prime minister finished speaking that Carlo spoke. "It's true that the return on investment is too low, but the government can't rely on the return on investment as the main basis. The mining of the Sabha iron ore mine has a very great role in promoting the development of Villa. And it could also provide thousands of jobs locally, at least tens of thousands of people, which your government needs to consider as well. ”

That's right, in Carlo's view, the appearance of the Sebha iron ore mine was simply a match made in heaven for the development of southern Italy. Kosovo's coal mines plus Libya's iron mines, at least in southern Italy, have the industrial base in place.

With heavy industry, the development of southern Italy cannot be said to catch up with the north, but it will not be pulled down too much. Capital is profit-seeking, and they will very consciously invest around the steel industry, after all, every copper plate is worth their calculations.

And those who only know how to calculate returns are simply short-sighted and have no big picture at all. They don't know what this means for Italy, at least it's not going to get stuck in the raw materials of the steel industry.

Although there was no embargo at all in this era, the influence of later generations made Carlo not want Italy to be in any danger of being stuck.

It was precisely knowing this that Lao Chen was able to promote the government's exploitation of Libya's iron mines. We can't always rely on foreign iron ore to develop the steel industry, even if it's allies. ”

Prime Minister De Pretis had already anticipated Carlo's words, and after many years of getting along, he knew the king's thoughts, and it could be said that compared with other countries, this monarch was the most concerned about the development of the kingdom.

Of course, he is also a strong monarch, but at the moment it seems that a strong monarch is still very beneficial to the development of Italy, and can speed up the processing of various affairs. And most of the decisions Carlo made turned out to be correct. This is very important because if the monarch makes a mistake, the repercussions can be devastating.

The Prime Minister's answer was very satisfying to Carlo. Every year, Italy spends a lot of money on raw materials. Since there are resources in the country, why not use them, at least it can drive employment and develop the country's economy.

"So where did your government choose to choose the location of the steel plant?"

Now Carlo is concerned about another issue, and that is the location of the steel plant. This issue is equally important, because it can directly provide thousands of jobs for the selected city, and at the same time, it can also drive the development of the city. As for the environmental problems that will be the biggest in later generations, this era when national strength is measured by steel simply does not exist.

In response to Carlo's inquiry, Prime Minister De Pretis immediately said. "Our government intends to build three steel plants in Naples, Palermo and Taranto......"

Although the prime minister said that three steel plants would be built, Carlo knew that there had to be a priority.

"And how did you arrange it?"

"The three places that our government has selected, Naples has rich water resources and is also the largest city in the south, and the construction of steel mills in this city will further accelerate the development of Naples. Therefore, we have prepared for Naples a steel smelter with a production capacity of 200,000 tons in the near term and a construction plan of 600,000 tons in the long term, mainly for the production of pig iron and low-carbon steel. Palermo is located in Sicily, so we have prepared a steel construction plan of 150,000 tons in the early stage and 300,000 tons in the long term. Its production is also based on pig iron and low-carbon steel, as well as medium- and high-carbon steel. As for Tabto, it is planned to build a special steel smelter, mainly producing military high-performance steel, and its production capacity is also the lowest, with an initial target of 30,000 tons and a long-term plan of 50,000 to 80,000 tons. ”

After listening to the Prime Minister's words, Carlo thought for a while and said. "Swap the steel development of Palermo with Naples, and focus on the development of the Palermo steel industry."

There is also a reason why Carlo said this, Sicily has a large population, and if there are not enough jobs, then this birthplace of the mafia will really have to vigorously develop the mafia.

Carlo has always been concerned about Sicily, because of the tension between people and land. Sicily has always been a large family of immigrants, and with the development of Italy, Sicily has been a little more peaceful in recent years, but he does not think that this is enough.

The prime minister, after hearing Carlo's prompt, also took this into account, so he did not raise objections.

So the development of the Italian steel industry in the next five to eight years was decided by them.

Of course, in order to develop the steel industry, the Italian government needs to invest a lot of money.

It is estimated that the Balkan Railway, as well as the Libyan Railway, which has just been decided, plus three steel production plants, will require the government to invest at least 3.4 billion lire.

This is not a small burden for Italy.

For this reason, Carlo is also under a lot of pressure, but a long-delayed matter, maybe you can take this opportunity to do it together.

Thinking of this, Carlo picked up the phone.

"How's that going, Chief Guard?"