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The topographic maps of the late nineteenth century place on the right bank of the Rio Piscinas, near its mouth, a building that has stood the test of time and that still today preserves traces of the multiple functions it has played in the local mining and industrial context. In the geological-mining map of Sulcis-Iglesiente, drawn up and published in 1888 by the geologist Zoppi, this building is strategically positioned in correspondence with a cart track that, passing through Genna Armida, connected the mouth of the Rio Piscinas to the valley of the Rio Naracauli, allowing direct access to the mining complex of Ingurtosu. The importance of the building is also attested by its presence in the first edition of the Topographic Map of Italy of the Military Geographic Institute, which highlights its role in the framework of the mining infrastructures of the period. However, with the construction of the railway, the Piscinas yard and the galena warehouse, built between 1875 and 1876 near the beach, the structure gradually lost its functional relevance, being relegated to a residual role compared to the new works. In 1897, an attempt at redevelopment led to the prefectural authorization for the construction of a glassworks at Bau, located near the Laveria Santa Barbara. At the same time, a plant equipped with a reverberatory furnace for the production of soda, an essential material as a flux to lower the melting point in glass processing, was built in the Punta Zarai building. This new use represented an attempt at economic diversification in the mining area, which sought to integrate value-added manufacturing activities. The glassworks, which reached a staff of about a hundred workers, remained operational for only one year, during which over 450 tons of material were produced. Among the most significant artifacts were one hundred-liter demijohns, barrels and bottles of various shapes and sizes, which constituted a heterogeneous and innovative sample for the time. This sample, exhibited at the Asti-Turin Exhibition, obtained an important recognition, winning the silver medal as a testimony to the quality and technical ingenuity of the products made.

Despite the initial success, the profitability of the plant proved insufficient. The management, passed into the hands of Lord Brassey, was unable to maintain the necessary economic stability, thus leading to its definitive closure. Today, what remains of the Punta Zarai building is represented by the base and some portions of the perimeter walls, which stand out in one of the most evocative and fascinating stretches of the coast, preserving the historical value of a site that witnessed economic ambitions and technical transformations linked to the mining and manufacturing industry of the time.