Tata Steel and Al Bahja to develop mine in Oman

Muscat: India's Tata Steel yesterday signed an agreement with Oman's Al Bahja Group to set up a joint venture company to explore and develop the Uyun limestone deposits in Salalah in the south of the Sultanate.

"The Indian company will hold 70 per cent stake in the joint venture named Al Rimal Minerals. It will develop and operate the Uyun mine," B. Muthuraman, managing director of Tata Steel, said in Muscat yesterday.

He announced that initial investment to form the company was $1 million. "In the next three to four years we expect to produce 10 million tonne of limestone from the mines and that the total investment could increase to $150 million," he added.

Al Bahja Group chairman Ajit Hamlai termed the agreement just the beginning.

"This is the first step in the direction of exploiting the vast wealth of minerals in our country," said the naturalised Omani citizen and a leading businessman in Oman.

Muthuraman also said more such projects could come to Oman. "If we see potential then we could even open steel plants in future," he said.

For the moment, he said that all the limestone taken out of the mines in Salalah would be used by Tata Steel in India.

"We currently use limestone from India but the deposits here seem to be of higher quality and whatever comes here can be used by us," he said.

He stressed that Tata Steel's motto was to care for the society and environment. "All the employees in this venture will be Omanis, except a few experts," he said, adding that over 1,000 jobs will be created by this new venture. "We will also train Omanis at our training centres in Oman to work at Al Rimal Mining," he said.