South Korea’s Daelim has won the $892 million engineering, procurement and construction contract to build the first plant in the Saudi Arabian Mining Company’s (Ma’aden) third large-scale phosphate complex (“Phosphate 3”).
In a statement, Ma’aden explained that the new plant will increase its annual phosphate production capacity to 9 million tonnes, “securing the Kingdom’s global position as a top phosphate producer and exporter.”
While the project is expected to cost $6.4 billion, it should contribute non-oil GDP growth of $6.7 billion to the Saudi economy and generate approximately 7,000 direct and indirect jobs.
Darren Davis, President and CEO of Ma’aden, and Heon Jae Yim, Daelim SEVP and CEO, signed the EPC contract at the Ma’aden headquarters in Riyadh to build a new ammonia plant in Ras Al-Khair on the Eastern coast of Saudi Arabia.
“Today’s announcement is the next step in securing Ma’aden’s leadership position in the global phosphate fertilizer market,” commented Davis. “With today’s award and the launch of Phosphate 3, we are building on our existing world-class phosphate business, ensuring that the phosphate resources of the Kingdom are developed efficiently, and delivering a meaningful contribution to the Saudi Vision 2030 goal of economic diversification for the Kingdom.”
“As a leader in global EPC, it is our pleasure to have another opportunity to work for Ma’aden,” added Heon Jae Yim. “With Ma’aden’s superb leadership and our accumulated expertise and know-how in project management, we recently successfully completed the ammonia plant for the Ma’aden Waad Al-Shamal Phosphate Company. We are very proud to once again serve Ma’aden and the Kingdom, and are committed to the success of this new project for Phosphate 3.”