WorleyParsons Ltd
(ASX:WOR) is one of three global companies that have won the first contracts for a planned $10.8 billion aluminium joint venture between Alcoa and Saudi Maaden.
The contracts have also been awarded to ABB of Switzerland and US based Fluor Corp.
WorleyParsons and Fluor have won the supervision, engineering and procurements for the Ras Azzour complex’s alumina refinery to be completed by December 2014.
The deal between Saudi Maaden, also known as the Saudi Arabian Mining Co, and Alcoa provides for a 1.8 million tonne per year refinery, a 740,000 tonne per year smelter, a bauxite mine and a rolling mine.
Maaden and Alcoa are splitting the Ras Azzour plant financing into two between the smelter, which will total $5 billion, and the rolling mill, which will cost $2.5 billion.
Alcoa agreed in December to take a stake in the Ras Azzour plant after tight credit conditions forced Rio Tinto Alcan to abandon a 49% stake in a similar plan with Maaden a year earlier.
Alumina Ltd is also a partner in the joint-venture.
WorleyParsons posted a profit of $390.5 million for fiscal 2009.
