Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) has decided to wait before it awards the project management consultancy (PMC) contract for its planned $6bn phosphates mining city in Saudi Arabia.

Initially Maaden planned to award the PMC and front-end engineering and design (feed) contracts to one bidder. MEED reported on 1 May that the US’ Jacobs Engineering had been awarded the feed contract.

“Maaden did not go with its initial plan of awarding both contracts to one bidder so the PMC is still available,” says a contracting source based in Saudi Arabia. “The initial feeling is that [Maaden] will wait until at least the late third quarter before making a decision.”  

The reason for Maaden deciding not to award the PMC with the feed as initially planned is not known. The company was unavailable for comment when contacted by MEED.

The phosphates city, which will be constructed at Waad al-Shamal in the north of the kingdom, is being planned 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 an 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 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 estimated to be 236 million tonnes.

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.