JEDDAH, 14 March 2004 — The planned north-south railway line will lead to new mineral projects worth SR22 billion, according to Dr. Abdullah Al-Dabbagh, chairman of Saudi Minerals Company (Maaden).
He emphasized the importance of the railway expansion project linking the country’s four corners and said it would boost investment in productive ventures, especially in the mineral sector.
Saudi Arabia last week signed a $10 million deal with Canadian, French and Saudi consulting firms to design a 1,600 km railway linking northern mineral deposits to the Gulf port of Jubail.
Finance Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf signed the contract with Canada’s Canarail, the French company Systra and Saudi Consolidated Engineering Company.
The Kingdom will launch an international tender for construction of the railway, which is expected to cost around $1.2 billion, once the firms complete their studies.
Maaden plans to use the new railway line to transport bauxite and phosphates to the eastern industrial city of Jubail. The line will be state-owned and a specialized body will operate it.
The railway will run southward from close to Saudi Arabia’s borders with Jordan and Iraq to the capital Riyadh and then swing east to Jubail on the east coast.
“The completion of the line and the phosphate and bauxite projects will push the Kingdom’s mining industry,” Al-Assaf said in a statement.
Maaden plans to construct a mining industrial complex in the Eastern Province so that ore and bauxite from the northern and central regions can be transported and refined there.
“The new railway line will help start two vital projects including a phosphate plant, which is one of the giant projects,” Dabbagh said. He estimated the Kingdom’s phosphate reserves at 3.1 billion tons.
The Jalamid region, where the plant will be established, has a phosphate reserves of 313 million tons. “Exploitation of phosphate will lead to establishment of new industrial projects,” he added.
This includes a phosphoric acid factory with an annual capacity of 1.3 million tons, a sulfuric acid factory and an ammonia factory, he said, adding that the three projects would require SR4.5 billion in investment.
Dabbagh said the north-south railway would also support his company’s bauxite project which includes an alumina refinery plant involving an investment of SR12 billion.
The Maaden chief said the plant would be able to supply 3.4 million tons of bauxite to produce 1,400 million tons of alumina from the refinery to be set up in the Eastern Province. The bauxite supply from the northern Azzabira region can meet the refinery’s requirements for 25 years.
Dabbagh said the railway line would also lead to the establishment of many other mineral projects worth SR5.5 billion to exploit the Kingdom’s vast manganese, iron, nickel, titanium, silica and calcium carbonate.