Ras Al-Khair (Also called Ras Az-Zour, Ras Azzour) is a town and port currently under development [1] in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It is on the eastern coast, 60 km (37 mi) north of Jubail. It is also known under its project name of "Minerals Industrial City".
The new city, RAZMIC (Ras Al Zour Mineral Industrial City), is planned to exploit the mineral deposites of phosphate and bauxite found within Saudi Arabia. [2] Therefore, a di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) plant will be built, an aluminium smelter, an aluminium rolling mill, an ammonia plant, an alumina refinery and facilities to produce phosphoric and sulphuric acid. Power will be supplied by the 2,400 MW Ras Al-Khair Power and Desalination Plant. [3] [4]
The official ground breaking for the aluminium project by the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (MA'ADEN) and Alcoa was on 19 June 2010. [5] The project was scheduled to be completed by 2014. Among other projects a residential village for the MAADEN employees was built with 500 housing units. [6]
The King Salman Global Maritime Industries Complex is under construction in Ras Al-Khair, and will be the largest shipyard in the world when it is completed. [7]
The town is served by King Fahd International Airport, the terminal is at a driving distance of 180 km (112 mi) to the south.
Ras Az-Zour will be linked by the Saudi Railways Organization to the bauxite mines at Zabirah with a new railway line branch of the North-South Project. [8] Later the line will be extended to meet the line from Riyadh via Buraidah to Haditha at the so-called Zubairah Junction. [9] As part of the Saudi Landbridge Project another line will connect the new port to Jubail and to Dammam. Thus Ras Al-Zour will be connected to the bauxite mine near Zabirah, the phosphate deposits near Jalamid and the agricultural center at Al-Basyata as well as to the oil processing facilities via the Jubail line.
The proposed seaport is thought to become a major export hub for aluminium products and ammonium phosphate.
In July 2011, King Abdullah changed the name of Ras Az-Zour to Ras Al-Khair (with Khair meaning light or bright to have a more positive naming), according to a statement by President of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thunayan to the Saudi Press Agency on 6 July 2011. [10] [11]
Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite, boehmite and diaspore, mixed with the two iron oxides goethite and haematite, the aluminium clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase and ilmenite . Bauxite appears dull in luster and is reddish-brown, white, or tan.
Transport in Saudi Arabia is facilitated through a relatively young system of roads, railways and seaways. Most of the network started construction after the discovery of oil in the Eastern Province in 1952, with the notable exception of Highway 40, which was built to connect the capital Riyadh to the economically productive Eastern Province, and later to the Islamic holy city of Mecca and the port city of Jeddah. With the economic growth of the 1970s, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has initiated many infrastructure development projects across the country, and the extensive development of the transportation network has followed suit in support of various economic developments.
Dammam is the capital of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. The city has a population of 1,532,300 as of 2022. Dammam is the kingdom's fourth-most populous city after Riyadh, Jeddah, and Mecca. Dammam constitutes the core of the Dammam metropolitan area, also known as the Greater Dammam area, which comprises the 'Triplet Cities' of Dammam, Dhahran, and Khobar. The region is closely linked to the city through social, economic, and cultural ties. As of 2022, the Dammam metropolitan area's population was 2,190,900.
Jubail is a city in the Eastern province on the Arabian Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia, with a total population of 474,679 as of 2022. It is home to the largest industrial city in the world. It is also home to the Middle East's largest and world's fourth largest petrochemical company SABIC. It has the world's largest IWPP producing 2743.6 MW of electricity and 800,000 m3 of water daily. Jubail comprises the Old Town of Al Jubail, which was a small fishing village until 1975, and the Industrial Area. Jubail Industrial City is the largest civil engineering project in the world today.
Alumina Limited is an Australian holding company. Spun off from Western Mining Corporation in 2002, its sole asset is a 40% shareholding in Alcoa World Alumina & Chemicals.
Ras Tanura is a city in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia located on a peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf. The name Ras Tanura applies both to a gated Saudi Aramco employee compound and to an industrial area further out on the peninsula that serves as a major oil port and oil operations center for Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world. Today, the compound has about 3,200 residents, with a few Americans and British expats.
Sodium hexafluoroaluminate is an inorganic compound with formula Na3AlF6. This white solid, discovered in 1799 by Peder Christian Abildgaard (1740–1801), occurs naturally as the mineral cryolite and is used extensively in the industrial production of aluminium. The compound is the sodium (Na+) salt of the hexafluoroaluminate (AlF63−) ion.
The Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) was a state-owned railway company that operated part of Saudi Arabia's rail network, along with the Saudi Railway Company. The SRO operated a network of railways with a total length of approximately 1,380 kilometers. The network consisted of two main lines. A 449 km passenger line that links Dammam with Riyadh, and a 556 km freight line that connects the King Abdul Aziz Port in Dammam with Riyadh.
Volta Aluminum Company, known as VALCO, is an aluminium company based in Tema, Greater Accra Region founded by Kaiser Aluminum and now wholly owned by the government of Ghana.
Water supply and sanitation in Saudi Arabia is characterized by challenges and achievements. One of the main challenges is water scarcity. In order to overcome water scarcity, substantial investments have been undertaken in seawater desalination, water distribution, sewerage and wastewater treatment. Today about 50% of drinking water comes from desalination, 40% from the mining of non-renewable groundwater and only 10% from surface water in the mountainous southwest of the country. The capital Riyadh, located in the heart of the country, is supplied with desalinated water pumped from the Persian Gulf over a distance of 467 km. Water is provided almost for free to residential users. Despite improvements, service quality remains poor, for example in terms of continuity of supply. Another challenge is weak institutional capacity and governance, reflecting general characteristics of the public sector in Saudi Arabia. Among the achievements is a significant increases in desalination, and in access to water, the expansion of wastewater treatment, as well as the use of treated effluent for the irrigation of urban green spaces, and for agriculture.
Jalamid(Arabic: حزم الجلاميد) is a town and crossroads in Saudi Arabia near the Iraqi border.
MA'ADEN is a Saudi state-owned mining company headquartered in Riyadh. It was formed as a Saudi joint stock company on 23 March 1997 for the purpose of facilitating the development of Saudi Arabia's mineral resources. The Saudi government still owns 50% of its shares while the remaining 50% are listed in Tadawul. It is the largest mining company in Saudi Arabia.
Jubail Airport is an airfield 25 kilometres (16 mi) west of Jubail City in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. It is located near the industrial area, about 7.5 kilometres (4.7 mi) to the shores of Dohat ad Dafi, one of the shallow bays near Jubail. The airport occupies an area of about 20 km2.
Rail transport in Saudi Arabia is an expanding mode of transport.
The SAR North–South Railway line is a 2,750 km network of railway lines in central and eastern Saudi Arabia, built and operated by the Saudi Railway Company. The primary line of the network connects the capital of the kingdom, Riyadh, to the border with Jordan at Al Hadithah.
GlassPoint is a private company founded in 2009 that designs and manufactures solar steam generators which use solar thermal technology to generate steam for industrial processes.
The Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (RCJY) was established on 21 September 1975, as an autonomous organization of the Saudi Arabian Government. The commission is governed by a board of directors and its chairman reports to the Council of Ministers. The chairman's office in Riyadh formulates policies and oversees implementation through two Directorates General; one in Jubail and the other in Yanbu.
Saudi Arabia Railways, formerly the Saudi Railway Company, is the national railway company of Saudi Arabia. It is de facto a state-owned enterprise, as it is owned by the Public Investment Fund.
The Ras Al-Khair Power and Desalination Plant is a power and desalination plant located in Ras Al-Khair on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia. It is operated by the Saline Water Conversion Corporation of Saudi Arabia. The plant began operating in April 2014 and, as of January 2017, is the world's largest hybrid water desalination plant. The project includes a power plant capable of producing 2400 MW of electricity. In 2015, it won the Global Water Awards "Desalination Plant of the Year" award.