April 30, 2024 - US fertilizer company Mosaic is selling its 25% stake in an $8 billion Saudi Arabian phosphate production joint venture to the country’s flagship miner Ma’aden, in a stock deal worth about $1.5 billion.    Ma’aden, which already holds 60% of Ma’aden Wa’ad Al Shamal Phosphate Co. (MWSPC), will issue about 111 million shares to buy Mosaic’s stake in the venture, a partnership that also includes Saudi Basic Industries Corp, with a 15% interest.  Mosaic had warned in February that a significant portion of the revenue generated from the asset was used to decrease debt, and that investing in the venture was not one of the company’s top priorities.  The MWSPC has a phosphate mine, beneficiation facilities, phosphoric acid and sulphuric acid facilities, power plants, and downstream business units. It has an annual production capacity of about 3 million tonnes of phosphate fertilizers products.  Mosaic and Ma’aden have worked together for over a decade. According to the US fertilizer producer’s president and chief executive, Bruce Bodine, the two will continue to work together under the evolved structure.  “This is an important evolution that we believe will create significant benefits for the growth of our phosphate business,” Bob Wilt, CEO of Ma’aden, added. “We look forward to working together with the Mosaic team to strengthen our phosphate business as we continue to build the mining sector into the third pillar of the Saudi economy.”  The deal is expected to close by the end of this year. As part of the agreement, Mosaic is required to hold its Ma’aden shares for a minimum of three years, with one-third of the shares becoming transferable after the third, fourth and fifth anniversary of the closing.

March 28, 2023 - The Ma’aden Waad Al Shamal Phosphate Company (MWSPC), based in Saudi Arabia, is the latest company to have benefitted from Mammoet’s specialised logistics offering.  MWSPC operates some of the largest and busiest fertiliser plants anywhere in the world, including the Umm Wu’al Sulphuric Acid and Power Plant. This plant is in a new industrial city in the extreme northeast of the kingdom. Structured around three sulphuric acid trains containing a total of nine vast process towers, it produces almost 14,000 t/d of fertiliser a day.  When the company was looking to upgrade the facility, and replace the original towers with cleaner, more efficient equivalents, it needed to keep downtime to an absolute minimum. To compound the issue, the towers had originally been stick-built; not designed to be lifted in one piece when they needed to be replaced. The conventional approach for dismantling them piece-by-piece would take several months for each train.  Fluor, the project consultant, reached out to Mammoet to lift out the old towers in one piece. With careful planning, sophisticated computer modelling, the right equipment, and an expert team, Mammoet was able to develop the solution to delicately lift out the old towers intact, then manoeuvre the modular replacements into position.  To convince MWSPC and Fluor that this unlikely operation could be achieved, Mammoet prepared a detailed engineering study. Three dimensional digital models of each tower were supplemented by a series of ultrasonic tests to reveal their true structure and strength. A finite element simulation showed how they would respond to the pressure of being hoisted out of the plant. And a series of bespoke frames and slings were designed to safely cradle the towers throughout the move.  A key requirement was to draft in the right equipment, and Mammoet had two crawler cranes – the 1,600-t capacity CC8800-1 and 1,250-t capacity CC6800 – and the 3,200 t MSG-80 ring crane in place for this. With this combination, it became possible to reach far above the tight confines of the site, extract all nine of the towers, move them to a central staging area, and hoist the replacements into position, according to the company.  Abdullah Terkaoui, Project Manager for Mammoet, explains: “Our methodology enabled our customers to reduce the planned shutdown schedule for each train from 120 days to 45 days. Then, as the operation progressed, further time savings were realised: the complete shutdown of the first train was completed in 30 days; the second shutdown, where the lifts took only seven days, enabled completion in 22 days; and, for the third, the lift took just three days, with a total mechanical completion in 19 days.  “This meant that, thanks to the entire project team and everyone involved, all three shutdowns were completed two months (64 days) ahead of the original schedule – representing a time saving of over 50%.”  Nayef Rowily, Project Director for MWSPC, stated that considerable effort was put into reviewing Mammoet’s plan repeatedly, while keeping in mind the nature of the job, which involved integration in a brownfield and MWSPC’s strong desire to maintain production: “This was accomplished through excellent teamwork, including assessing all risks associated with the scope. Ultimately, we are pleased with Mammoet’s performance across all three SAP train tower replacements. They surpassed our expectations, and the site team did an exceptional job in delivering the project in record time. The MWSPC team takes pride in this significant achievement and recommends Mammoet’s expertise on a global scale.”

January 8, 2016 - The Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Ma’aden) has announced the approval of a Saudi Industrial Development Fund loan of Saudi Arabian riyal 4bn ($1bn*) for the Ma’aden Waad Al Shamal Phospahte Co. (MWSPC).  The loan is split into four facilities, each of which provides separately for the construction of an ammonia plant in Ras Al Khair, a diammonium phosphate (DAP) plant in the same city, a sulphuric acid plant in Waad Al Shamal and a phosphate plant, likewise in Waad Al Shamal.  Ma’aden said that the loans would complete the debt financing of its phosphate joint venture. Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) and US-based Mosaic Co. retain 15% and 25% stakes in the business, respectively.