Oman: As the Omani national rail network currently under development connects mining sites with the Sultanate's maritime gateways, gypsum exports and other minerals will increase massively.
Oman Rail's general manager stressed that the switch from outdated truck-based shipping of minerals to rail-based freight, along with the deployment of high-capacity ship-loading systems, has the potential to send export volumes soaring. A 60,000t ship can take around 4 - 6 days to load using traditional transportation and loading techniques, so with the new system the goal is to advance that significantly by using high capacity methods of loading.
As the rail network becomes fully operational, the transportation capacity is expected to increase from an approximately 10 – 12Mt/yr to nearly 20Mt/yr.
