Aluminium Stewardship Initiative announced Ma’aden Aluminium has been successfully certified to performance and chain of custody standards.

The Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI) has announced that Ma’aden Aluminium, a Saudi Arabian mining company, has been successfully certified with the ASI Performance and Chain of Custody Standard for bauxite mining at the Al Ba’itha mine in Qassim Province and for alumina refining and smelting, aluminium smelting and casting and rolling operations at Ras Al Khair Industrial. Both cities in Saudi Arabia. The industrial facility also includes recycling operations for used beverage cans.

According to the ASI press release, the company’s production, sourcing and responsible management of aluminium has been certified. “The heart of the integrated facility, its smelter, has an annual production capacity of 780,000 tonnes of aluminium and its rolling facility can produce 460,000 tonnes of can sheet, beverage can ends and tabs and car body sheet. The remelting operations can recycle 120,000 tonnes of used beverage cans per year”.

The ASI Performance Standard defines environmental, social and governance principles and criteria to address sustainability issues in the aluminum value chain. “It sets out 59 criteria under the three sustainability pillars of governance, environment and social, addressing key issues such as biodiversity, indigenous peoples’ rights and greenhouse gas emissions.”

Fiona Solomon, ASI Executive Director congratulated Ma’aden Aluminium on this double ASI certification of its integrated operations in Saudi Arabia. “The vertical integration of these operations, from bauxite mining to UBC recycling, as well as smelting and rolling, makes it a major aluminium node in the Middle East. The company’s ASI certifications are a significant boost to the responsible production and sourcing of ASI-certified materials for the global aluminium value chain and aluminium-using industries.

Ma’aden is among the fastest growing mining companies in the world and the largest mining and multi-commodity metals company in the Middle East.