Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) has received bids for the front-end engineering and design (feed) and project management consultancy (PMC) contract for its planned $6bn phosphates mining city at Waad al-Shamal in the north of the kingdom.

The project is designed so Maaden can fully utilise phosphates deposits at its mine at Al-Khabra, 40 kilometres northeast of Turaif in the north of the kingdom.

“The bids for the feed and PMC went in on 10 March and are with Maaden for evaluation now,” says a source familiar with the scheme. “Maaden want the winning engineering contractor to have a good track record in phosphates, but also an ability to execute complex and diverse projects.”

The scope of works for the city will include a mining component, as well as eight different processing plants and a utilities and offsites package. The winning company for the feed and PMC will be carrying out work for about $4bn-worth of the total budget.

The companies who submitted bids for the project include:

• Fluor (US)
• Jacobs Engineering (US)
• KBR (US) receives
•  SNC Lavalin (Canada)
• Worley Parsons (Australia)

Riyadh also plans to use the city as a catalyst for the economic development of the area. Waad al-Shami will become the major phosphates hub in the kingdom and a major downstream phosphates cluster for attracting international companies is also planned for the area.

“Maaden is trying to maximise opportunities for its phosphates mines,” said Yahya al-Yami, Maaden’s vice-president for phosphates & industrial minerals, at the 2nd Saudi Downstream Conference held in early March. “We will act as the anchor and we hope to add more downstream to the city.”

Maaden will not run the city and are in talks to appoint an operator by the middle of 2012.

Waad al-Shamal is being developed to utilise the phosphate produced at Maaden’s second mining operation at Al-Khabra. A feasibility study has been under way at the site for the past two years that has been exploring the possibility of adding a further 1.5 million tonnes a year (t/y) of production.

The phosphate produced at Al-Khabra is low in heavy metal content and thus ideal to be used for food production, as well as fertiliser and animal feed. The measured reserves of the Al-Khabra deposit are believed to stand at 236 million tonnes.

Maaden already has a phosphate mine in operation at Al-Jalamid in the northeast of the kingdom. The mine has reserves of about 534 million tonnes, with the offtake being used as the raw material for the $5bn Maaden/Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) fertiliser joint venture that has been constructed at Ras al-Khair in the Eastern Province.

Commercial production of diammonium phosphate started on 1 February and will be ramped up over the coming months to eventually hit the plant’s 3 million t/y capacity.

The offtake from the plant will be sold on the international market, with 400,000 t/y of surplus ammonia being offered to domestic or international customers. The complex also has the capability to produce monammonium phosphate if market requirements demand it. Maaden owns 70 per cent of the plant, with Sabic owning 30 per cent.

The scale of the kingdom’s mining operations has meant that major infrastructure has had to be developed to handle the transfer of raw materials. The first phosphate was transferred via the Saudi Railways Company new minerals railway to Ras al-Khair in May 2011. A major port has also been constructed in Ras al-Khair to export the offtake produced from Maaden’s mining activities, both in phosphates and aluminium to international costumers.  

 Maaden is also developing a 4 million t/y bauxite mine at Al-Baitha, near Quiba, which is also in the northeast of the kingdom. The bauxite produced will supply the aluminium complex being developed at Ras al-Khair.

Other products mined by Maaden include gold and base metals, as well as industrial metals such as magnesite.