Saudi Ma’aden secures $2bn loan for phosphate project

DUBAI (ICIS)–Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden) has secured $2bn in financing from state-owned Public Investment Fund (PIF) for its planned phosphate project in the north of the kingdom, the company said on Thursday.

“Ma’aden announces that PIF has approved today $2bn to fund part of Waad Al Shamal Phosphate Company,” it said in a bourse filing.

“The loan will be for a period of 17 years and will be repaid in half yearly instalments with a 5 year grace period,” the company added, without giving further details.

The Waad al-Shamal project will involve total investment of around $9bn for a phosphate mine, several major processing facilities, smaller downstream factories and a residential area.

In December, Ma’aden said it had received initial approval of Saudi riyal (SR) 15.75bn ($4.2bn) from banks and financial institutions to fund the project.

In the same month Ma’aden had also awarded three contracts worth a combined SR8.46bn to Canadian and Asian companies to build phosphate mining and production.

Canada’s SNC Lavalin and China’s Sinopec Engineering Group have won a SR2.86bn contract to build a power plant and a sulphuric acid plant which has a production capacity of 4.9m tonnes/year.

South Korea’s Hanwha Engineering & Construction Co won a contract to build a phosphoric acid plant worth SR3.5bn. The plant will have a production capacity of 1.5m tonnes/year.

China Huanqiu Contracting & Engineering Corp Co won a contract to build an ore beneficiation plant worth SR2.08bn with a production capacity of 5.3m tonnes/year.

The project in Waad al-Shimal City is a joint venture between Ma’aden, Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic) and Mosaic. Ma’aden owns 60%, Mosaic 25% and SABIC 15% in the project.