Saudi’s Ma’aden Q2 profit rises 45% on higher sales

Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden), the Gulf’s largest miner, posted a 45.3 per cent jump in second-quarter net profit on Thursday, in part due to a rise in sales of gold, alumina and ammonium phosphate fertiliser.

The firm made a net profit of SAR517.8m ($138.1m) in the three months to June 30, up from SAR356.5m in the corresponding period of 2017, it said in a bourse statement.

The results were short of forecasts of SAR759.9m by SICO Bahrain and SAR641.3m by EFG Hermes.

Ma’aden, which operates in gold, aluminium and phosphates, is a key pillar in Saudi Arabia’s plan to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons.

Read: Subsidiary of Saudi’s Ma’aden amends loan terms

The company said its sales increased 14 per cent as sales volumes of gold, alumina and ammonium phosphate fertiliser rose.

Profit was also lifted by a 16 per cent rise in average realised prices of aluminium and a 14 per cent increase in ammonium phosphate fertiliser prices.

An increase in income from time deposits and a rise in the share of net profit of its joint venture affiliate with Canada’s Barrick Gold Corp also helped, it added.

Saudi Arabia’s efforts to build an economy that does not rely on oil and state subsidies involves a shift towards mining vast untapped reserves of bauxite, the main source of aluminium, as well as phosphate, gold, copper and uranium.