May 22, 2023
Saudi Arabian Mining Company (“Ma’aden” or the “Company”, 1211 on the Saudi Exchange), the largest multi-commodity mining and metals company in the Middle East, today reported its financial results for the quarter ended 31 March 2023. The Company continues to drive transformation across its business and establish strategic partnerships to deliver long-term growth in line with Ma’aden’s 2040 strategy and to leverage Saudi Arabia’s mineral endowment.
QUARTERLY HIGHLIGHTS
Securing long term growth through strategic partnerships and project delivery:
- • Joint venture with PIF to expand international footprint, diversify Ma’aden’s product mix and securing supply of the kingdom’s strategic minerals.
- • Joint venture with Ivanhoe Electric giving access to breakthrough technology to accelerate exploration activity by six times.
- • Strategic partnership with Shareek to support growth across Ma’aden’s asset portfolio and with the Ministry of Investment to accelerate delivery of the Ma’aden’s Phosphate 3 mega project.
- • Commissioning activities ongoing at Mansourah-Massarah, Ma’aden’s largest gold project expected to produce an average of 250,000 ounces per annum, with initial commercial production on track for H2-FY23.
Growth in sales volumes and strong cash generation offset by lower commodity prices and one-off items
- • Higher Granulated Fertilizer and Ammonia sales volumes offset by lower commodity prices driving revenue of SAR 8.05 billion (Q1-FY22: SAR 8.91 billion).
- • Strong cash generation from operations of SAR 2.99 billion supporting further reduction in long-term borrowings and net debt of 2% and 5% respectively from December 2022.
- • Net profit of SAR 0.42 billion (Q1-FY22: SAR 2.17 billion) impacted by lower EBITDA of SAR 2.18 billion (Q1-FY22: SAR 4.40 billion) primarily due to a one-off utilities charge and higher raw material prices.
- • Granulated Fertilizer up 35% on Q1 2022 and Ammonia production up 9% on Q1 2022.
Ma’aden remains focused on delivering significant long-term growth. The first quarter saw the continued roll-out of the company’s transformation program, Numu, which is helping ensure Ma’aden is fully equipped to capitalize on growth opportunities and drive efficiency across operations. As part of this, the Company has put in place a solid operating model to deliver operational excellence and ensure successful execution of key projects. At the same time Q1 also saw the Company solidify important strategic partnerships that will significantly enhance capabilities across the Company and support growth from exploration through to project delivery.
Supply-demand dynamics are now more effectively managed, raw material prices are easing and fertilizers and ammonia prices have normalized and are expected to remain in-range for the remainder of the year.
This, combined with the successful delivery of key projects that enhance operational capacity, enables Ma’aden to maintain FY23 production and capital expenditure guidance, as outlined at the FY22 results.
Robert Wilt, Ma’aden CEO comments on the results; “In the first quarter, we continued to focus on rolling out our transformation program to make Ma’aden a more agile, responsive business, better equipped to capture growth opportunities and unlock long-term value for shareholders. We have increased production and sales volumes in our core Phosphate Business Unit and delivered another period of strong cash generation. This was despite softer commodity prices, which impacted our top-line performance and profitability for the quarter compared to last year.
We have also struck a number of transformative partnerships that are going to build out our capabilities to support our growth ambitions. Our strategic partnership with Shareek has potential to help accelerate major growth projects across our asset portfolio in Saudi Arabia. Our JV with PIF will give us significant exposure to high quality international opportunities in strategic minerals while our joint venture with Ivanhoe Electric is enabling us to accelerate the world’s most ambitious exploration program for strategic minerals, right here in the Kingdom.
“We continue to make good progress to optimize existing operations and bring new projects online. Ammonia 3 production is ramping up towards nameplate capacity and the wider Phosphate 3 project is on track. The aluminium pot relining at Ras Al-Khair is progressing as planned and Mansourah-Massarah, the largest gold project in Saudi Arabia, remains set to commence commercial production in the second half of 2023.