Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden) has commitments from banks for financing worth up to 15.75 billion riyals ($4.2 billion) for a $7 billion phosphate project in Saudi Arabia, it said on Wednesday.

The project in the northern city of Waad al-Shimal is a joint venture between Ma'aden, Saudi Basic Industries Corp and Mosaic and is part of Saudi state efforts to create a stronger industrial base beyond oil refining and export.

The rest of the funding should come from two Saudi government funds - the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Saudi Industrial Development Fund (SIDF) - as well as some export credit agencies (ECA).

The 17-year loan with commercial banks and financial institutions will be repaid in half-yearly installments from December 31 2018, Ma'aden said in a bourse filing on Wednesday.

It gave no details in the statement of the banks involved in the financing and said it expects to receive the remaining financing commitments by the end of January 2014.

It will sign along with its partners and the project financial advisor the final financing agreements in the second quarter of 2014.

The scheme will have a production capacity of 16 million tonnes per year of phosphate concentrate, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, as well as plants to produce calcium monophosphate and calcium diphosphate, Maaden said previously, with phosphate production expected to start in late 2016.-Reuters