Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Maaden) said on Tuesday it has chosen South Korea's Daelim Industrial Co for preliminary work on its Jubail petrochemicals project. Maaden said it expected construction of the project, a joint venture with Sahara Petrochemicals Co to be completed in the third quarter of 2012. In a statement on the Saudi bourse website, Maaden said it sent a letter of intent to Daelim. The plant is expected to have capacity of 250,000 tons per year (tpy) of caustic soda and 300,000 tons per year of ethylene dichloride, Maaden said. Caustic soda is a feedstock used for the refining of bauxite to alumina. Maaden and Alcoa agreed on Sunday to build a $10.8 billion aluminum complex, targeting the Middle East from 2013. They will set up a 1.8 million ton-per-year refinery, a 740,000 ton-per-year smelter, a bauxite mine with an annual capacity of 4 million tons and a rolling mill with a capacity of up to 460,000 tons.