RIYADH: Saudi Arabian Mining Co. has obtained an accreditation certificate to export blue ammonia, its CEO said in an interview.
This will allow it to supply 14 percent of the total blue ammonia market globally, Robert Wilt told Al Arabiya on Oct. 28, on the sidelines of the Future Investment Initiative held in Riyadh.
Wilt also pointed out that the company signed an agreement within the activities of the FII to supply its first shipment of blue ammonia.
“There is not enough copper but we are going to find it,” Wilt said during his participation in a panel entitled Modernizing Mining.
“It generally takes about 19 years from time to find something to have a miner around it, we need to compress that timeline down to at least six years and the only way we are going to do that is in improvement in how you do it with technology,” he said.
“There is a huge opportunity in technology to help find it, process it, market it,” he added.
Ma’aden’ saw its shares price hitting its highest level since the company went public on the back of its plans to expand production capacity.
The share opened at SR39.25 ($10.5) in 2022, climbed to SR80 on Oct. 24, surging 104 percent.
In March, the state-owned firm announced plans to increase production capacity and invest in exploration to tap into the Kingdom’s $1.3 trillion mineral reserves.
This made Ma’aden shares lucrative, further leading to high performance, economist Ali Alhazmi told Arab News.
One of the reasons could be attributed to Ma’aden turning into a probable company last year, reaching SR5.2 billion, compared to SR280 million in losses in 2020, he added.
“By the end of 2022, Ma’aden will achieve SR9 billion in profit, a growth of 50 percent from 2021,” Alhazmi predicted.