Saudi mining firm contracts U.S. firms for industrial city projects

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (4E) – Saudi mining company Ma’aden has signed a $260 million deal with U.S. engineering firms Fluor Corp. and Bechtel Corp. for the development of a new phosphate field and expansion of a mining city in northern Saudi Arabia.

The contract with Flour through Fluor Arabia amounting to $198.38 million provides for engineering consultancy services and the handling of the phosphate project called Umm Wual in Waad Al-Shimal City for Mining Industries, also called Phosphate City. The project includes plants to produce calcium monophosphate and calcium diphosphate.

The project is expected to increase the phosphorus oxide capacity of Ma’aden to around 1.5 million tons a year. The project’s projected annual output capacity is 16 million tons of phosphate concentrate, sulphuric acid and phosphoric acid.

In the other deal worth $61.78 million, Bechtel Arabia will supervise and manage the development of the Waad Al-Shimal City near Turayf.

The 170-square-mile industrial city will include commercial, housing, and educational facilities, according to Bechtel. The mining complex will feature seven world-scale phosphate processing plants. Preparatory work on the project is now under way and construction will begin in 2013.

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