Boliden sells stake in Saudi mine.

For US$6.9 million in cash, base metal major Boliden (BOL-T) has sold its half-interest in the Saudi Company for Precious Metals (SCPM) to the Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma’aden). Prior to the sale, Boliden and Ma’aden shared ownership of SCPM equally.

Ma’aden was created by the Saudi government in 1996 to help diversify the national economy beyond the oil and gas sector. The company currently operates Saudi Arabia’s largest gold mine, Mah ad-Dhahab, and is developing several other precious and base metal projects in the country.

The SCPM joint venture had been created to exploit the open-pit Sukhaybarat gold mine, 330 km east of Medina in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

In 1998, the mine produced 88,200 oz. gold using conventional milling and heap leaching. Boliden’s share of production provided it with only US$8.6 million in revenue, representing less than 1% of the company’s total revenue.

On Jan. 1, 1999, Sukhaybarat had reserves of 2.8 million tonnes grading 1.8 grams gold per tonne plus resources of 38.5 million tonnes grading 1.1 grams gold.

In another sale of a non-core asset, Boliden has unloaded its Arv Andersson scrap business to the Finnish company Kuusakoski for US$16.5 million cash plus the assumption of certain liabilities.

During the third quarter, Boliden sold its DEF radiator manufacturing business and, in a separate deal, sold its dormant Gibraltar copper-molybdenum mine in British Columbia to Taseko Mines (TKO-V). Taken together, both deals added $14.5 million to Boliden’s third-quarter earnings.