Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.12
By Dalga Khatinoglu- Trend:
Tehran and Tokyo have signed a memorandum of understanding worth $10 billion in mining sector, Iranian Deputy Trade Minister Mehdi Karbasian told Mehr News Agency.
Beside Japan, we are negotiating with German, Belarusian and Austrian companies, while contracts with worth 6.5 billion euro have been signed with French and Italian companies, he told Mehr News Agency.
He didn't mention any further details regarding the MoU, but added that the Chinese side has prepared a $4.5-billion finance package for developing Iran's mines.
During the visit of President Hassan Rouhani to Italy in Jan.25, Danieli Group signed deals worth close to $6.2 billion with the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) for cooperation in the steel and aluminum sectors.
The agreements signed by Danieli's CEO Gianpietro Benedetti and the head of IMIDRO, Mehdi Karbasian, include a joint venture and the supply high-tech machinery and plants to a number of Iranian steel and aluminum companies, valued at $4 billion, IMIDRO reported on its website.
IMIDRO also signed an aluminum co-op deal with the French Fives Group during the Iranian mission's stay in Paris on Jan.27.
Signed by the giant engineering company's chairman of the executive board, Frederic Sanchez, and head of IMIDRO, the agreement entails the establishment of a joint copper anode production company through an engineering, procurement, construction and finance contract.
Anode, primarily made from petroleum coke, is one of the main raw materials required for aluminum ingot production and its manufacture usually accounts for nearly 30% of production costs, the Financial Tribune reported.
The anode production plant, with a production capacity of 450,000 tons per year, requires a close to $400 million investment and is IMIDRO's largest initiative ever taken to expand Iran's aluminum production capability.