Ma’aden Gold and Base Metals Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden), has awarded the engineering, procurement, construction, pre-commissioning and commissioning contract of the Mansourah & Massarah project to the consortium of Outotec and Larsen & Toubro.
The project also includes training services to develop national cadres in project engineering, operations and maintenance. The Mansourah & Massarah mines, processing plant and associated infrastructure will be located in the Central Arabian gold region, one of the richest geological areas in the Kingdom and are due to be completed in 2022.
The project will become the company’s largest ever gold project, producing an average of 250,000 ounces of gold per year over the life of the mine. Total investment in the mine is expected to reach SR3.3 billion ($880 million).
Darren Davis, CEO of Ma’aden, said: “This project is an important element of our strategy to increase our gold production to 1 million ounces a year. Our continued growth in the Kingdom will create many direct and indirect job opportunities in the Saudi economy and contribute to the development of communities around our operational areas.”