NEW YORK – US fertilizer company Mosaic plans to invest up to $1 billion in a joint venture to produce phosphate in Saudi Arabia, giving the Minnesota-based company a new geographic source of the crop nutrient. The $7 billion project, including a mine and chemical complexes to make phosphate fertilizer, will be 60 percent owned by Saudi Arabian mining and metals company Ma'aden. Mosaic will own 25 percent and petrochemical company Saudi Basic Industries Corp. JSC will hold 15 percent. The greenfield project, to be known as Wa'ad Al Shammal Phosphate Project, would be built in the northern region of Saudi Arabia at Wa'ad Al Shammal Minerals Industrial City, and would include further expansion of processing plants in Ras Al Khair Minerals Industrial City which is located on the east coast of Saudi Arabia. The joint venture would develop a mine and chemical complexes that would produce phosphate fertilizers, animal feed, food grade purified phosphoric acid and sodium tripolyphosphate for sale to customers worldwide. The highly cost-efficient facilities are expected to have a production capacity of approximately 3.5 million tons of finished product per year. Operations are expected to commence in late 2016. The project will complement Mosaic's existing phosphate production in Florida and Louisiana, said the company's chief executive, Jim Prokopanko. Mosaic's role will be to help design, build and operate the project, in exchange for one quarter of the project's production. The three companies expect to sign a definitive agreement in the first half of 2013. — Agencies
