A generous capital increase for Ma’aden: Saudi mining company Ma’aden is set to increase its share capital by SAR 12.3 bn (c.USD 3.2 bn) as it looks to bolster its capital base for future growth plans, according to a disclosure to Tawadul on Thursday.

What we know: Ma’aden will increase its capital by 50% to SAR 36.9 bn from SAR 24.6 bn, the disclosure showed. The increase will be executed through the company’s statutory reserve and retained earnings, it added. It will also issue one bonus share for every two owned by shareholders.

Could the future for Ma’aden be blue ammonia? Ma’aden signed an agreement with Indian agricultural chemicals maker Coromandel International Ltd last month for the supply of low-carbon blue ammonia. Its shipment to India followed its first shipments of low-carbon blue ammonia to Chinese petrochemical producer Shenghong Petrochemicals in May as part of an agreement to supply 25k tons of ammonia, which is in line with the company’s goal of becoming a green leader globally. The company has shipped 138k tons of blue ammonia products to countries including Korea, China, Japan, India, Thailand, and the EU since last year.

The news follows an interesting 1Q: Ma’aden saw its net income plunge 81% y-o-y in 1Q 2023 to SAR 419.4 mn on the back of higher costs for raw materials and lower commodity prices. Despite the disappointing results, it was able to seal a 50/50 JV with US mineral development company Ivanhoe Electric Inc. for the exploration of copper, nickel, gold, silver, and other electric metal. Ma’aden’s Mansourah-Massarah commissioning activities are still on track with an initial production date of 2H 2023. The gold project located in the central region of the country is set to be the company’s largest gold project to date with an average production of 250k ounces per annum of gold.