The foreign correspondent reported on December 18th that Rio Tinto and Alcan have decided to abandon their Saudi Arabian aluminum project shareholder status and become a collaborator of the project; it is currently in talks with the Saudi mining company Ma’aden to provide technology to the project. Support and advice.

Rio Tinto Alcan CEO Dick Evans (Dick Evans) said that the current global economic crisis has affected its project investment plan, so the company decided to abandon the Saudi aluminum project shareholders, turned to cooperation with Ma'aden, such as Deploy manpower, provide alumina, sell products and other supportive help.

Despite Rio Tinto's abandonment of its shareholder status, both parties expressed the hope that they will be able to cooperate again and provide technical and commercial support in the future. Ma'aden is currently reviewing the project's prospects and expects to save on investment costs by adjusting project size and reassessing costs.
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Ma'aden and Rio Tinto have previously reached a preliminary agreement to jointly develop bauxite, a refinery, a smelter, and a power station with at least 1.4 million tons of alumina and aluminum and 650,000 tons of aluminum and aluminum. /year; The project is planned to start in 2012 and is considered to be the world's largest project that fully integrates mining-to-metals. The project is one of the two major projects planned by Ma'aden. It hopes to provide more investment and employment opportunities to rural areas in Saudi Arabia, and gradually changes Saudi Arabia's oil-based economic model to make it more diversified. .

However, due to the lack of international financing channels, the tight liquidity of local banks, and worries about the global economic downturn, analysts generally believe that the $2.5 trillion project will be delayed or even cancelled.

â—† About Ma'aden

Ma'aden was established in March 1997 as a joint venture. It hopes to assist Saudi Arabia in the development of non-oil resources to change the country’s dependence on the oil industry and the petrochemical industry. In July 2008, the company was acquired by private companies for 50% of its shares and will continue to focus on the development and enhancement of Saudi mining, mineral products, by-products and related industries.

â—† About Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto: The world's second largest mining company, was first established in 1873. Has more than 60 subsidiaries worldwide. At present, the company is headquartered in the United Kingdom, Australia is headquartered in Melbourne, ranked No. 9 among the top ten Australian companies from 2003 to 2004. In 2004, Rio Tinto Mining spun off some of its non-core assets from the company's main body, eventually realizing a net profit increase of 86% and sales of US$2.8 billion. In Rio Tinto’s business, Australia’s business accounted for 45%, North America’s business accounted for 40%, and South America accounted for 5%. The company’s sales revenues were: North America accounted for 28%, Europe accounted for 23%, Japan accounted for 22%, Australia’s New Zealand accounts for 4%, China 5%, and other Asian countries 14%.

It is mainly engaged in ore prospecting, mining and mineral processing. The main products include aluminum, copper, diamonds, energy, gold, industrial minerals and iron ore.