The local Al-Tamman Trading Establishment and India’s Indsil Group are to spend $70m on a high carbon ferrochrome smelter at Sohar Industrial Park in the sultanate.

The local English-language daily Oman Observer reported that the joint venture partners plan to produce around 75,000 tonnes-a-year of the metal that it will sell on the international market.

Al-Tamman is one of the largest producers and exporters of chromite ore in Oman and is also planning to build a 100,000-t/y beneficiation plant to process low-grade chrome and manganese ores into commercially valuable concentrates. The facility will be integrated into the smelter project.  

The plant is expected to create around 200 jobs of which 60 per cent have been earmarked for Omani nationals.

Al-Tamman is a subsidiary of the privately owned Muscat Overseas Group. The Indsil Group are based in Kerala in sourthern India and have other interests in speciality alloys.