JEDDAH – Tasnee and Cristal Global celebrated the graduation of 170 young Saudis from Jazan in the first training program introduced by Cristal Academy. The graduation qualified the young men to join work in Cristal Ilmenite Slagger in Jazan Economic City that will cost $550 Million. On behalf of Jazan, Emir Prince Mohamed bin Naser bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Dr. Abdullah Al Swayed, Jazan Emirate Deputy, attended the celebration held on March 2014, in attendance of Dr. Talal A. Al Shaer, Vice Chairman of Tasnee and Chairman & CEO of Cristal Global, and Engineer Jamal Nahhas, Cristal President. Dr. Al Swayed delivered certificates and granted gifts to the trainees holding the Engineering BSc, secondary certificates, technical secondary certificates.



Dr. Al Swayed congratulated the whole graduates wishing more opportunities granted by companies to Saudi citizens. He also thanked Dr. Al Shaer for celebrating the occasion and announcing the program.



Dr. Al Shaer expressed his deep gratitude and appreciation to Dr. Al Swayed for honoring and attending the celebration that included the region’s people to achieve all the best for all. Dr. Al Shaer also acknowledged to the attendees Cristal history through a documentary film. He also gave a brief introduction to the training program in Jazan Slagger project showing the job opportunities offered by Cristal.



Dr. Al Shaer said Cristal Academy is an educational organization targets enabling the individuals and work teams, develop their practical and technical skills, and give them detailed information about titanium industry all over the world. There are 3 facilities in the academy introducing 1500 training courses, 500 online courses, introduced by 60 trainers and 10 experts having variety of knowledge.



Omar Al Najjar, Cristal VP-HR, said that Cristal requires self-sufficiency of labor by arming the Saudi labor with global skills that make them able to lead the company to the future.



Engineer Jamal Nahhas, Cristal president, announced that the factory will start work in mid of 2014 to be the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. The factory will process the raw material of ilmenite to be transferred to a high-quality titanium dioxide 85-92 percent to be used in titanium dioxide pigments that is widely and daily used to produce many products like paints, papers, plastics, inks, rubber and others. The Finnish Toho Titanium Company will offer Cristal Slagger in Jazan Economic City the best technologies for smelting Ferro-alloys (slags) that complies the European Union Standards.



The Slagger will start production with 500,000 tons of titanium slag in addition to 230,000-235,000 tons of iron to be used as a feedstock for local iron factories for the first time in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. Cristal expansion plans in the future to increase the slagger production capacity to 1 million tons.



The slagger will enable Cristal to be strong competitor in market and enable it to cover the international shortage Titanium Dioxide Slag in the next few years. Cristal mines of row material in Australia will offer the ilmenite metal for the slagger, and the local facility will offer Titanium metal locally for the first time in Saudi Arabia.



According to Cristal expectations 75 percent of jobs offered by the slagger and 570 jobs in the facility in the next 5 years will be introduced to Saudis.



Tasnee has the biggest share of 66 percent in Cristal and is considered as a pioneer in nationalizing jobs (Saudization) through its multiple projects especially its newest projects in Hail Economic City that include 4 factories with investment of SR500 million. — SG