THE Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) has signed an agreement to jointly develop a fully-integrated, world-class phosphate production facility in Saudi Arabia with The Mosaic Company and the Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic).

Ma’aden will own 60 per cent, Mosaic 25 per cent and Sabic 15 per cent of the venture that will approximately cost SR26 billion ($7 billion). The new complex will be one of the largest integrated phosphate facilities in the world and will approximately double Ma’aden’s existing phosphate production while adding important new products to Ma’aden’s production capabilities.

The project will include new mining and processing plants in Saudi Arabia at Wa’ad Al Shammal Mineral Industrial City, as well as further processing plants at Ras Al Khair Mineral Industrial City. The two sites will be linked by the North-South Railway. Production at the new facilities is expected to commence in late 2016 with a total production capacity of approximately 16 million tonnes per year (tpy). The facilities will produce, as finished product, approximately three million tonnes of fertiliser products such as DAP/MAP and NP/NPK, as well as approximately 44,000 tonnes of downstream products including purified phosphoric acid (PPA) used in food industries, sodium tripolyphosphate (STPP) used in detergent manufacturing, and dicalcium phosphate and monocalcium phosphate (DCP/MCP) used in the manufacturing of animal feed.

Khalid Al Mudaifer, president and CEO of Ma’aden, said: “This project represents not only an important milestone in Ma’aden’s growth, but it will also be an important contributor to the development of the northern region of Saudi Arabia as it will include the first major industrial project to be constructed in the region.”

As part of infrastructure development, Ma’aden will also partner with the Technical Vocational Training Corporation to develop a specialised training centre in Wa’ad Al Shammal.