JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has deferred to the second quarter of this year plans to start trial operations at a railway designed to transport phosphate and bauxite ore, Saudi Press Agency reported Wednesday, citing a senior rail official. Saudi Railway Co. (SAR) has so far executed 1,213 kilometers of the 1,486 kilometers railway, said Mansour Bin Saleh Al-Maiman, the firm's chairman, according to SPA. Al Maiman gave no reason for the delay, from the end of 2010. SAR has previously said the line, which will serve projects developed by Saudi Arabian Mining Co. with Saudi Basic Industries Corp. and US aluminum giant Alcoa Inc. (AA), is expected to be in operation by the end of 2010. The planned railway will link the phosphate mine at Al-Jalamid and the bauxite mine at Az Zabirah to the processing facilities at Ras Azzour, on the Gulf coast. 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 (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. Processing facilities at the Ras Az Zawr have also been designed with the flexibility to produce Monammonium Phosphate “MAP”, should production of MAP be considered more economically viable. DAP produced by the phosphate project will be sold primarily into the international markets. It is anticipated that the project will also produce quantities of ammonia and phosphoric acid not required in the production process, which can be exported or sold domestically. The Al-Jalamid site comprises a phosphate mine, beneficiation plant and supporting infrastructure and encompasses an area of approx. 50 km². Mine production is expected to average approximately 12 mtpy of ore and beneficiation facilities at Al-Jalamid will be scheduled to produce an estimated 5 mtpy of flotation concentrate on a dry basis. Ma'aden's measured phosphate resources at Al-Jalamid are estimated to be 534 mt. It is proposed to mine 223 mt for the phosphate project over its initial planned life of operations. A substantial amount of industrial infrastructure will be developed at the Al-Jalamid site to support mining and beneficiation operations. This includes power plant, potable water production, treatment and distribution, roads and telecommunications. The Ras Az Zawr site comprises a plot of land 90km north of Jubail on the coast of the Gulf. A segment of the site is proposed to be used for the construction of the integrated chemical and fertilizer facility and related infrastructure for the phosphate project. Phosphate concentrate will be transported by rail from the Al-Jalamid beneficiation plant to Ras Az Zawr for processing. The phosphate concentrate will be processed in a fertiliser production facility consisting of a phosphoric acid plant, a sulphuric acid plant, an ammonia plant, a DAP granulation plant, a co-generation plant and desalination plant, and other infrastructure. It is estimated that the phosphate project will produce approximately 3 mtpy of granular DAP, plus approximately 0.4 mtpy of excess ammonia. It is also anticipated that the phosphate project will generate approximately 0.2 mtpy of excess phosphoric acid for sales to the domestic market.
