Spain’s Dragados and South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering & Construction have emerged as the two frontrunners to be awarded the contract for the major fertilisers package at Saudi Arabian Mining Company’s (Maaden) proposed $7bn phosphates mining city.

The package, which will be built at Waad al-Shamal in the north of the kingdom, includes process plants that will produce diammonium phosphate (DAP) and nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) fertilisers.

MEED reported in July that some changes were made to the specifications of the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) package and this is the reason why the bidding process has taken slightly longer than first anticipated.

“It is down to two contractors now, but there is still not a clear frontrunner,” says a contracting source based in the kingdom. “The market is leaning towards Dragados, but nothing has been confirmed.”   

The mining city is being built so Maaden can fully utilise the phosphates from its Al-Khabra mine. 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 phosphate produced at Al-Khabra is low in heavy metal content and is ideal for use in food production, as well as fertiliser and animal feed. The measured reserves of the Al-Khabra deposit are estimated to be 236 million tonnes.

In March, Maaden announced it was joining forces with the US’ Mosaic and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) to build the phosphates city. Maaden will retain a 60 per cent stake, with Mosaic and Sabic taking a 25 per cent and 15 per cent stake respectively.