Saudi Maaden nears deal on $500 mln soda JV: report

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabian Mining Co 1211.SE (Maaden) is close to reaching a deal with Sahara Petrochemical Co 2260.SE to set up a caustic soda joint venture in the kingdom, its chief executive said in press remarks on Sunday.

Maaden wants the 50-50 joint venture to supply a planned 740,000 tonnes-per-year aluminum smelter that will be jointly developed with Rio Tinto (RIO.L) at a total cost of $10.55 billion, Alrai quoted Abdullah al-Dabbagh as saying.

Alumina is produced by treating bauxite ore with caustic soda.

"The cost of the project is between $400 million and $500 million, and we have initially signed a preliminary agreement to study this project, now we reached the final economic study of the project," al-Dabbagh said.

(Writing by Souhail Karam, Editing by Ola Galal)