RIYADH, 20 March — State-owned Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) is in talks with a local private firm over a $2-billion investment in rich phosphate mines in the north of the Kingdom, the chairman of the company was quoted as saying yesterday.
The talks aim at setting up a joint company to extract more than 100 million tons of phosphate deposits in the Jalameed area, near the border with Jordan, Abdullah Al-Dabbagh told Al-Riyadh newspaper.
The project also aims at establishing a petrochemical plant in Jubail industrial city on the Arabian Gulf, he added.
Geological studies have indicated the presence of huge deposits of phosphates in the area which can be exploited for up to 100 years, he said.
Maaden was established in 1997 with a capital of some $1.1 billion to be involved in the mining of precious and non-precious metals. It produces 120,000 ounces of gold, 300,000 ounces of silver, 900 tons of copper and 3,000 tons of zinc a year.
