RIYADH: Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma'aden) and US company Alcoa signed a letter of intent with South Korea's Samsung Engineering worth SR2.21 billion ($590 million) to build part of a mega aluminum complex. Alcoa and Maaden teamed up in 2009 to build the world's largest fully integrated aluminum complex in Ras Az Zawr, on the Gulf coast. Ma'aden signed a letter of intent with Samsung which involves engineering, procurement and construction of a rolling mill as well as testing the plant, Maaden said on the bourse website Wednesday. The project would take 32 months to complete, it added. The first phase of the aluminum complex which includes a smelter and a rolling mill would be up and running by 2013 while a bauxite mine and an alumina refinery is set to start by 2014. The rolling mill would produce 380,000 tons annually of aluminum sheets, it said. When Ma'aden and Alcoa first announced the project they said the mill would have a capacity of up to 460,000 tons. Alcoa's joint ventures with Ma'aden will be the first fully-integrated aluminum smelter and food-grade can-sheet rolling mill in the Middle East. Ma'aden, whose main focus is on mining gold, is adding three new business lines, including aluminum and phosphate, to tap rising world demand for chemicals used in agriculture and the lightweight metal used to make beverage cans and aircraft.
