Sultan bin Jamal Shawly, undersecretary at the ministry for mineral resources, said Al-Naimi signed the two licenses on Saturday that were won by Abdul Aziz Al-Amran & Partners.

Abdul Aziz Al-Amran, director general, signed the deal on behalf of his company.

He said the licensed area is located in Bahrat Hadhen in Taif.

The first license was allocated to exploit raw materials for white cement with a production capacity of not more than 500,000 tons while the second license was to exploit raw materials for Portland cement with a capacity of not more than 2 million tons.

He said among the 20 pre-qualified companies only four presented their offers with Al-Amran presenting the highest bid of SR18.1 million to win the two licenses.

He said the establishment of the two cement factories in Taif would boost economic development of the city and create more jobs for its people.

Speaking about conditions, Shawly said the company that had won the two licenses should set up a joint stock company that would own the whole project including the two factories.

It will have a 50 percent stake in the new firm while the rest would be given to public through an initial public offering in accordance with the Capital Market Authority’s regulations.

The ministry wants to issue seven new licenses for limestone exploitation.

The first one was issued last week and was received by United Cement Company. The winning companies should employ Saudis.

“One condition is that they should employ and train Saudi workers and the percentage of Saudi workers should be not less than 40 percent by the end of first year after starting production,” Shawly said.

“We have also insisted that the number of Saudi workers in the company should reach 80 percent after the completion of four years,” the official added.