Safety First

The challenges that we faced in 2020 reinforced that our staff are our greatest asset and keeping them safe is Ma’aden’s greatest responsibility.

The nature of the sectors we operate in means that there will always be risks, but it is our role to mitigate and minimise these as much as is possible. However, 2020 sadly saw three fatalities. This is three too many. Everyone at Ma’aden has a role to play in creating an environment where fatalities and serious injury are consigned to the past.

I know that to achieve this demands a fundamental shift in behaviour on personal and corporate levels.
This is why, one of our key priorities remains to improve upon our Environment, Health, Safety and Security ("EHSS") performance. In this report, you will read about the positive progress we are making towards this goal. This year, at our major Ammonia 3 construction project, we achieved 10 million safe manhours.
At our Mansourah, Massarah Gold Project, we hit 4 million safe man-hours. We are also making good progress on reducing the total number of reportable incidents taking place at our sites overall. However, I am determined that this is only the beginning. New EHSS management standards have been developed and will be the cornerstone of our practice in future.
One of the areas of key focus for all at Ma’aden in ensuring a safe workplace is improving the visibility and presence of our leadership in the field. The need for this was never clearer to me than during this year’s COVID-19 pandemic. We learned from the difficulties we faced in managing our remote locations, and overcame initial challenges to cope well with the pandemic, keeping our people protected, our assets operational, and our customers supplied.

Also under focus this year, across the world, has been the need to strike the right balance between development and the environment. As a company that plans for the long-term, Ma’aden knows that we have a responsibility not just to today’s customers and communities, but also to those of tomorrow. We are constantly working to reduce the environmental footprint of our sites, to deliver sustainably wherever we work.

A key new tool to help achieve this is our new EHSS Centres of Excellence, launched in 2020. These will provide a source of expertise and guidance to all of our businesses, driving performance forward on EHSS.

Evolving Excellence

2020 also saw the successful launch of another key initiative central to Ma’aden’s future, the Ma’aden Transformation Program. This major technology project will be a catalyst for our future growth, redesigning Ma’aden’s key ICT systems and processes to ensure alignment between people, process and technology. It will help unlock the full digitalization potential to work smarter and improve the service we provide to our customers. Of course, the increasing use of technology brings new challenges as well as new opportunities. Alongside this increase in connectivity, we must be vigilant in maintaining cybersecurity controls to protect our critical assets and our brand. To that end, Ma’aden has launched Ma’aden Identity and Access Management (MIAM). This will support and enhance our cybersecurity capabilities and ensure Ma'aden is compliant with the highest international cybersecurity standards.

Finally, we are proud of the work that we have carried out in 2020 to achieve real local impact in Saudi Arabia. Ma’aden has global presence, but the company’s heart remains local. We are a proud Saudi Arabian company operating on a foundation of mutual trust and co-operation to support the wider interests of the Saudi Government and contributing to the realization of its Vision 2030. Ma’aden delivered on the next level of our domestic growth in 2020, by obtaining new exploration and mining licenses, securing the required water supply for future projects, and enabling Ma’aden to operate effectively within the prudent restrictions imposed by the Saudi Arabian efforts to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The only way we will continue to achieve our goals is through the consistent and dedicated work of the Ma’aden team, who remain our most valuable asset.

I want to thank the entire Ma’aden family for their contribution to our continuing success, and wish everyone a prosperous year.

I want to thank the entire Ma’aden family for their contribution to our continuing success, and wish everyone a prosperous year