ICL Iberia’s potash deliveries have not been impacted by the accident involving the collision between a freight train carrying potash and a passenger train in northeastern Spain’s Barcelona province in the early evening on May 16.
A spokesperson for parent company ICL Group Ltd. confirmed to Green Markets the potash cargo was that of ICL Iberia and that the accident has had no influence on the Spanish operations’ supplies.
The driver of the passenger train was killed in the collision, which occurred after the third car of the freight train derailed at the entrance to the Sant Boi de Llobregat station at around 6 p.m. local time and hit the front cab of a passenger train that was leaving the station at that time, according to local media reports, citing the regional rail company FGC. More than 80 people were also injured – 86 according to some reports.
The causes of the accident are under investigation by FGC and the Mossos d’Esquadra regional police.
ICL Iberia owns the Cabanasses underground mine and Suria processing plant, located near Barcelona. The company produces salt as well as potash at the operation, where it expects to reach annual run-rate of approximately 1 million mt of potash by the end of the second quarter of this year (GM May 13, p. 31). ICL Iberia also operates a terminal in the port of Barcelona, where it completed a new terminal in early 2020.