Producer

Ma'aden (Saudi Arabian Mining Company)

HQ SA · Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's state mining company. At Wa'ad Al Shamal, operates integrated H2SO4 production using elemental sulfur from Saudi Aramco as feedstock — advantaged access to low-cost domestic sulfur. H2SO4 produced on-site is consumed entirely within the integrated phosphate fertilizer process. Ma'aden is both a major H2SO4 producer and consumer at a single integrated complex. Bought out Mosaic's 25% JV stake Dec 2024.

3

Inputs supplied

2

Goods downstream

3

Facilities

0

Stories

What they make

3 inputs Ma'aden (Saudi Arabian Mining Company) supplies

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Goods downstream

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What else they do

Business segments

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  • Phosphate (DAP/MAP Fertilizers)

    35%
  • Aluminum (Ma'aden-Alcoa JV)

    30%
  • Gold & Base Metals Mining

    20%
  • Chemicals & Other

    15%

Intelligence

What's known

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  • Did you know2023

    Ma'aden produces phosphate fertilizers (DAP/MAP) using elemental sulfur from Saudi Aramco oil refining as the sulfuric acid feedstock -- integrating the oil and mining industries within one state-controlled supply chain. The same Saudi government that controls Aramco oil reserves also controls Ma'aden phosphate reserves, meaning Saudi Arabia has vertically integrated from crude oil to fertilizer production using oil refining byproducts. Saudi Arabia is therefore positioned to control inputs to global food production (phosphate fertilizers) through the same state apparatus that controls global energy prices (OPEC/Aramco). When global phosphate prices spike due to Morocco export restrictions or geopolitical events in North Africa, Saudi Arabia benefits simultaneously from high fertilizer prices AND high energy prices -- the state entity that could control both sectors does not face the usual tradeoff between energy and food costs that constrains most countries.

    Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden)
  • Origin2023

    Ma'aden (Saudi Arabian Mining Company) was established in 1997 by the Saudi government explicitly to diversify the Saudi economy from dependence on oil revenue by developing the kingdom's mineral resources. Saudi Arabia has world-class phosphate deposits at Al-Jalamid in the northwest (discovered through geological surveys in the 1960s-70s) and significant gold deposits at historical mines that were worked by pre-Islamic civilizations and now produce modern output. The government believed that Saudi Arabia's oil wealth could fund the infrastructure to develop these mineral assets at industrial scale -- industrial parks, railways, desalination water, and cheap energy -- creating a post-oil industrial base. The phosphate project at Wa'ad Al-Shamal is the largest integrated mining and chemicals complex in the world by capital cost, integrating mining, acidulation, and fertilizer production using elemental sulfur from Aramco refineries as feedstock. Saudi oil revenue funded a phosphate fertilizer export business that competes with OCP (Morocco), Mosaic, and Nutrien globally.

    Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden)