Ma’aden Phosphate Company: a Dream Realised

Keywords: Phosphate, ammonia, DAP, integrated production

INTRODUCTION:

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the largest producers of oil and gas in the world. In 1933, the Government established a leading oil company (Saudi ARAMCO) which helped in the rapid transformation of Saudi Arabia from a desert kingdom to a modern state. Since then, the Kingdom has undergone a transformation which continues to this day. In order to grow in various fields, the Kingdom strategically went ahead with extensive exploration work. This has resulted in collection of scientific knowledge about the geology and mining potential of the region, which is immense, and has become the basis for expanding the industrial activities of the Kingdom.

With all the identified potential, it is not out of place to say that in the coming years, mining and mineral wealth will become the third pillar of Saudi industry.

With this vision, Ma’aden was formed by Royal decree in 1997 to facilitate the development of Saudi Arabia’s mineral resources and to be a world class minerals enterprise in terms of size, capabilities, competitiveness and global reach.

Downstream industries will be considered if they strengthen Ma’aden’s position in commodities. As an enterprise Ma’aden will develop best-in-class capabilities supported by internal knowledge, an expanded talent base through joint venture partnerships wherever necessary. Ma’aden aspires to be a leader in Corporate Social Responsibility through environment friendly sustainable operations, education and Saudisation.

CONCLUSION:

When the world-scale phosphatic fertiliser complex was visualised years back, it appeared to be distant dream, in view of the challenges in implementing this project and especially as the phosphatics business was new to the Kingdom.

Now MPC is proud of its successful implementation and operation of the world-scale phosphatic complex.

It is worthwhile to mention that this is the only fully integrated phosphatic complex with availability of all the raw materials and proximity to the market.

Having successfully implemented this project, MPC is embarking upon further expanding the capacity at Ras Al Khair itself and also implementing of another grass root complex with different product profile in Al Khabra.

Majed Al-Qahtani, Abdullah Al-Ajmi and Stalin Soundarapandian, Ma’aden Phosphate Company, Al Jalamid, Saudi Arabia.

12 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, 8 plates.