BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 8
By Elnur Bagishov – Trend:
Over 326 billion rials (about $7.7 million) was invested in the mining sector of the Western Azerbaijan Province of northwestern Iran from March 21, 2019 until the present, said Gholamreza Babaei, Chairman of the West Azerbaijan Province Industry, Mine and Trade Organization, Trend reports referring to the organization’s website.
Investments in the mining sector increased by 62 percent compared to the same period of 2018-2019.
“Some 38 licenses were issued for the development over 21 million tons of reserves in 2020. As a result of issuing these licenses, 300 people were employed,” Babaei said.
The chairman said that 60 licenses for exploration operations were issued this year in West Azerbaijan Province. The volume of investments for the development of new mines was 29 billion rials (about $690,000).
Currently, 476 mines with over 1.2 billion tons of reserves and more than 16 million tons of ore extracted annually. Some 5,140 people work in these mines. Investment of mines is more than 3.5 trillion rials (about $85.5 million) .
Over 60 percent of mines in the West Azerbaijan Province are in the Urmia, Tekab, Mahabad, Khoy and Miyandab cities.