Saudi Arabia’s Ma’aden to export blue ammonia

Saudi Arabia’s Ma’aden to export blue ammonia

Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden), the largest multi-commodity mining and metals company in the Middle East, will export blue ammonia as it looks to support the global energy transition.

The announcement was made by HRH Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Energy, at the Saudi Green Initiative Forum, taking place on the sidelines of COP 27 in Egypt.

Last month, Ma’aden was certified to export 138,000 tons of blue ammonia, one of the largest certified volumes in the world to date. The certifications were granted by TÜV Rheinland, a leading independent testing, inspection and certification agency based in Germany. The first shipment of 25,000 tons of Blue Ammonia will leave the Kingdom for South Korea this month.

While Ma’aden looks to export minerals to support the energy transition, the company is also working to decarbonize its existing operations by implementing carbon capture technologies.

To that end, Ma’aden has signed a 20-year agreement with Gulf Cryo to build and operate a CO2 plant in its phosphate complex in Ras Al Khair. The new plant will capture 300,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year from Ma’aden’s three ammonia plants.

The CO2 will be used for industrial gas applications, replacing the use of fossil fuels,