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Iran annually extracts 25 million tonnes of copper from Sarcheshmeh mine

Business Materials 10 June 2014 12:33 (UTC +04:00)

Baku, Azerbaijan, June 10

By Fatih Karimov - Trend:

Iran annually extracts 25 million tonnes of copper from the Sarcheshmeh mine in the Southeastern province of Kerman.

Mehdi Hosseininejad, Deputy Director of Kerman Province's Industry and Mine Department, said that copper anode, cathode, and concentrate are produced in the Sarcheshmeh Complex, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on June 10.

The complex exports copper cathode to China, India, and the UAE, he noted.

Currently, copper is sold at $6,995 per tonne in the international market.

Iran's copper production capacity currently stands at around 200,000 tonnes per year and the capacity is projected to be doubled by the end of the Iranian solar year 1397 (March 2019).

On May 20, Ahmad Morad Alizadeh, Director of National Iranian Copper Industries Company, said the country's copper production will rise to 300,000 tons in the next year (starts on March 20).

"Increasing the output to higher than 400,000 tons requires conducting explorations for finding new copper deposits," Alizadeh added.

On May 18, Ali Yazdani, director of resources management department at the Iranian industry ministry, said a total of 7,000 operating and non-operating mines exist in the country.

He added that around 5,600 mines are currently operating in Iran.

Iran holds three percent of the world's mineral reserves which puts the country first in the Middle East and third in Asia.

Iran is ranks among the 15 major mineral-rich countries of the world and exports its industrial and mineral products to 159 countries, including Iraq, China, the United Arab Emirates, India and Afghanistan.

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