Ma’aden, Alcoa Sign Agreement with Samsung for Aluminum Plant

February 9, 2011 – The Saudi Arabian Mining Company （Ma’aden） and U.S. company Alcoa Inc. have signed a letter of intent with South Korean company Samsung Engineering （Samsung） to build part of Ma’aden and Alcoa’s aluminum complex in Ras Azzour. The agreement, valued at $590 million （SR2.21 billion）， involves the engineering, procurement, and construction of a rolling mill, as well as overseeing a test run of the plant. The rolling mill is scheduled come online in 2013, and Ma’aden and Alcoa project that it will produce 380,000 tons per year of aluminum sheets.

Ma’aden and Alcoa signed a $10.8 billion （SR40.5 billion） joint venture in 2009 to build the Ras Azzour aluminum complex. The plant is expected to have a capacity of 1.8 million tons per year of alumina, the raw material taken from the ore bauxite used to make aluminum, and is scheduled to be operational in 2014.