RIYADH, 12 July 2006 — The Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) announced yesterday that it has awarded a SR900 million contract to construct four ammonium phosphate granulation plants to Dragados Industrial S.A.
Abdallah E. Dabbagh, president and chief executive officer of Maaden, and Mateo Rodriguez-Sanchez Moral, managing director of Dragados, signed the contract jointly. Top executives of both companies, including Pablo Gan, counselor and charge d’ affaires of the Spanish Embassy, witnessed the signing ceremony.
Dabbagh explained that the granulation plants would be constructed at Ras Az Zawr minerals industrial city for the Maaden phosphate project. The combined granulation plants will produce 9,000 tons per day of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), making it one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world.
“The granulation plants will be designed to enable production increases to 10,000 tons per day of DAP, thus allowing further increase in fertilizer production from the Ras Az Zawr fertilizer complex,” Dabbagh added. First production is scheduled in May 2010.
The Ras Az Zawr mineral industrial complex is a SR30 billion investment that will include the phosphate project and the aluminum project with an alumina refinery, a smelter, a power plant and a port on the Arabian Gulf.
The construction of the granulation plants over the next 34 months will enable the Maaden phosphate project to accelerate its progress in advancing Maaden’s vision of becoming a dominant force in the world phosphate fertilizer scene and a major part of the diversified economy of the Kingdom.