Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Maaden) has sent banks an information package on the financing for phase two of its $10.8bn aluminium project.

Banks received the details of the financing plan on 7 May and they have been asked to respond with financing commitments by 8 June.

Maaden and its joint venture partner in the project, the US’ Alcoa, are expected to try and get all the financing agreement in place before the end of July, with a plan to have the first drawdown on the facility before the end of Ramadan in late August.

Bankers in the kingdom describe the timetable as ambitious, and some are already saying they may need to seek an extension in order to get internal credit approvals.

Phase two of the project will require $3.6bn, of which $2.16bn will be debt. The debt will be split between $1bn of commercial bank loans, $1bn of direct loans from the Public Investment Fund, and the rest from the Saudi Industrial Development Fund. The loans will have a tenor of 16 years.

The local Riyad Bank and the UK’s Standard Chartered are acting as advisers to Maaden on the project and law firm Clifford Chance is acting as lenders’ council.