Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) is close to completing the prequalification process for four more packages at its proposed $6bn phosphates mining city at Waad al-Shamal in the north of the kingdom.

MEED reported in January that engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the ammonia package had been released for tender to an all-South Korean shortlist in January.

Now four more EPC contracts are due to be released in late March or early April. A much broader range of international companies have also been invited to prequalify.

“There are four packages, which require a wide ranging set of skills and experience from contractors,” says an industry source based in Saudi Arabia. “There are two technical packages and two packages for power and utilities, so there will be plenty of interest.”

The packages have been numbered three, four, five and six and they are separated into the following:

• Package 3: beneficiation and phosphoric acid
• Package 4: sulphur and power & utilities
• Package 5: sodium tripolyphosphate, purifying phosphoric acid and dicalcium phosphate
• Package 6: utilities and offsites and infrastructure

The US’s Jacobs Engineering is carrying out the front-end engineering and design (feed) and the US’ Fluor is carrying out the project management consultancy for the technical packages, worth a total of about $4bn, at the city.

The 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 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.