Wednesday, May 25, 2011
(This story was originally published Tuesday.)
RIYADH (Zawya Dow Jones)--Saudi Arabia has started trial operations at a railway designed to transport phosphate and bauxite ore, state-run Saudi Press Agency, or SPA, reports Tuesday, citing the kingdom's finance minister Ibrahim al-Assaf.
Saudi Railway Co., or SAR, has completed the construction of the 1,392 kilometers railway, Assaf said.
Saudi Arabia has previously postponed the trial operations of the railway from the end of 2010 to the second quarter of this year but gave no reason for the delay. The line will serve projects developed by Saudi Arabian Mining Co. with Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and U.S. aluminum giant Alcoa Inc.
The railway, which will eventually have a capacity to transport 15,000 tons will link the phosphate mine at Al Jalamid and the bauxite mine at Al-Zabirah to the processing facilities at Ras al-Zour, on the Gulf coast. It has already transported 200 tons during the trial operations.
Maaden is doubling capacity at its Saudi fertilizer plant to 6 million metric tons a year. It will use phosphate from a deposit at Al Jalamid and local gas and sulfur supplies to manufacture the fertilizer diammonium phosphate, or DAP.
Maaden is also developing a fully integrated complex refinery with Alcoa, which will be the world's lowest-cost supplier of primary aluminum, alumina and aluminum products.
-By Summer Said, Dow Jones Newswires; +966-546-842-373; summer.said@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2011 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
25-05-11 0350GMT
