RIYADH: The Gulf鈥檚 largest miner, the Arabian Mining Co., known as Ma鈥檃den, has formed the backbone of 海角直播鈥檚 mining sector since it was established in 1997.
Its role in the Kingdom became more prominent when the Saudi Vision 2030 was launched in 2016, which introduced plans to diversify the economy from its reliance on oil.
Mining was identified as a key industry that would aid economic transformation.
With a market cap topping SR100 billion ($26.9 billion), the mining firm is among the Kingdom鈥檚 10 biggest players by market value and is one of the fastest-growing mining companies in the world.
Despite COVID-19 industrial slowdowns that have hindered many firms, Ma鈥檃den remained influential in shaping the Saudi mining sector through a wide range of projects, investments and acquisitions in the Kingdom and abroad.
Amid efforts to fully exploit the Kingdom鈥檚 reserves, Ma鈥檃den will begin operations in the largest gold mine in the country in the Makkah region, on the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Work will commence in the first quarter of the year.
聽鈥淭his project is our largest gold mine,鈥 Ma鈥檃den CEO Abdulaziz Al-Harbi told Arab News in an interview last October.
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The firm is on course to become one of the top three global phosphate fertilizer producers in the world. It closed the pre-operational stage of the $900 million ammonia plant in Ras Al-Khair industrial city in mid-2021, marking the first project expansion.
The mine will play a crucial role in achieving the company鈥檚 target of producing 1 million ounces of gold per year by 2025.
The firm is on course to become one of the top three global phosphate fertilizer producers in the world. It closed the pre-operational stage of the $900 million ammonia plant in Ras Al-Khair industrial city in mid-2021, marking the first project of its 鈥淧hosphate 3鈥 portfolio expansion.
鈥淭he ammonia plant expansion will add over 1 million tons ammonia production to reach 3.3 million tons, making Ma鈥檃den one of the largest ammonia producers east of the Suez Canal,鈥 Al-Harbi noted.
Ma鈥檃den has also consistently managed to attract foreign investors, including US firm Alcoa, which has a 25 percent stake in two of Ma鈥檃den鈥檚 subsidiaries as part of a $10.8 billion joint venture.
A view of Ma'aden's ammonia plant in Ras Al-Khair industrial City in KSA's Eastern Province. (Ma'aden handout photo)聽
In 2019, the company concluded its first international acquisition when it bought an 85 percent stake of a Mauritius-based fertilizer company, Meridian Group, valued at $140 million.
These milestones have helped the mining giant pave the way to making the Saudi mining sector more appealing to local and international investors.
For the first nine months of 2021, Ma鈥檃den posted a net profit of SR3.14 billion, swinging from a net loss of SR781 million during the same period in 2020, when the pandemic slowed worldwide growth.
The recovery was due to higher average sales prices of all products except gold, the company said in a bourse filing.
Ma鈥檃den鈥檚 key minerals, phosphate and aluminum, contributed to SR9.48 billion and SR7.1 billion of revenues respectively, up from a collective SR10.9 billion in the same period last year.
A higher share of net profit from joint ventures also boosted Ma鈥檃den鈥檚 profits.
Looking at the stock performance, Riyadh-based Ma鈥檃den has a solid history of growing stock value that has increased in the past two years, even amid hefty market swings.
In 2021, the stock jumped more than 93 percent to end the year at SR78.5.
