Swiss-based ABB, US-based Fluor Corp and WorleyParsons have won the first contracts for a planned $10.8 billion aluminium joint-venture between Alcoa and Saudi Maaden, Reuters reported.
Maaden, also known as the Saudi Arabian Mining Co, said in a statement that the contracts awarded were linked to the construction of the integrated aluminium complex at Ras Azzour. It did not give the value of the contracts.
WorleyParsons and Fluor won the supervision, engineering and procurements contrat for the complex’s alumina refinery to be completed by December 2014, state-controlled Maaden said.
ABB has been given 18 months to deliver electric power to the aluminium smelter and Fluor was given a contract to oversee and complete the construction of the plant’s rolling mill by December 2014, it added.
Fluor Arabia, the Saudi affiliate of Fluor Corp, also won a contract for the management of services at the complex, engineering works and supervision of infrastructure at the site, Maaden said.
Maaden’s deal with Alcoa provides for a 1.8 million tonnes per year refinery, a 740,000 tonnes per year smelter, a bauxite mine with an annual capacity of 4 million tonnes and a rolling mill with capacity of up to 460,000 tonnes.
Project financing
Maaden launched in April a $7.5 billion project financing for the scheme to banks. Maaden and Alcoa are splitting the Ras Azzour plant financing into two between the smelter which will total $5 billion and the rolling mill which will total $2.5 billion.
Alcoa said in April that it was increasing its investment in the project after Maaden said its stake in the joint-venture was raised to 74.9 per cent and Alcoa’s would be 25.1 per cent.
Alcoa and Maaden had initially entered into a 60/40 agreement in December to build and operate the complex which integrates a bauxite mine, an alumina refinery, an aluminum smelter and a rolling mill.
Alcoa agreed in December to take a stake in the Ras Azzour plant after tight credit conditions forced Rio Tinto Alcan to abandon a 49 per cent stake in a similar plan with Maaden about a year earlier.
