BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 19
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
The exploration operations are underway in the West Azerbaijan province (northwestern Iran) to increase mining resources, Gholamreza Babaei, chairman of the West Azerbaijan Province Industry, Mine and Trade Organization, Trend reports citing the organization’s website.
According to Babaei, West Azerbaijan Province ranks first in Iran in terms of mining materials diversity.
Babaei added that given this diversity, plans will be implemented in many areas, including the mining sector.
"There are metals, precious metals, decorative stones and titanium in the West Azerbaijan province. The focus is on the establishment of enterprises in the mining industry for this. Thus, the sale of mining materials in raw form in the province must be prevented," he said.
Babaei said that West Azerbaijan Province has a total of 967 kilometers of border with Azerbaijan, Turkey and Iraq. One-fifth of Iran's border customs are located in the province and there are six border markets.
The official said that there are 3 airports (Urmia, Khoy and Maku) at a distance of 110 km in the province.
Babaei said that as for the export of products through the customs of West Azerbaijan province, more than $1.84 billion worth of products have been exported in the last Iranian year (from March 21, 2019 to March 20, 2020). Most of the products were exported to Iraq. The product exports increased by 30 percent in terms of value compared to the preceding year (from March 21, 2018 to March 21, 2019).
There are 468 mines in Iran's West Azerbaijan Province, and 51 types of mining materials have been discovered in the province so far.