Gulf Mining Group, 100 percent owned by the Sultanate of Oman and the largest chrome ore mining and exporting company in Oman, has signed an agreement with the country's Sohar Freezone, a joint venture between Sultanate of Oman, The Netherlands-based Port of Rotterdam and India-based SKIL Infrastructure, to set up a ferrochrome smelter with an initial production capacity of 50,000 mt per year, according to local media resources.
The ferrochrome smelter is planned to be built within 12 to 14 months, doubling Gulf Mining's ferrochrome smelting capacity to up to 120,000 metric tons a year by 2015.
Kanwal Gambhir, CEO of Gulf Mining, said that the chrome ore for the smelter will be primarily sourced from the company's mines in Samayil, supplemented with procurements from other mining firms operating in the Sultanate.