Saudi state-run mining firm Ma'aden and US partner Alcoa awarded SR1.03 billion ($274.7 million) worth of contracts for a mega aluminum complex in Saudi Arabia, Ma'aden said on Tuesday. The contracts are mainly to provide equipment for the rolling mill at Ras Azzour on the Gulf coast, where the two companies plan to build the world's largest fully integrated aluminum complex. The contracts were awarded to Germany's SMS Siemag and BWG Bergwerk, Austria's Ebner and US Wagstaff, Ma'aden said in a statement on the Saudi bourse website. The joint venture is to be a fully integrated industrial complex, with a bauxite mine at Ba'aitha as well as an alumina refinery, an aluminium smelter and a rolling mill. The smelter and rolling mill are set to start production by the end of 2013, Ma'aden said. It would be “the largest, most efficient vertically integrated aluminum complex in the world.”
