BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 28. In general, Iran spent approximately 12.3 trillion rials (about $292 million) on mining explorations in the last Iranian year (March 21, 2022 through March 20, 2023), an official of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), Ahmad Fattahi said, Trend reports.
“Thus, the costs on mining exploration operations in Iran totaled approximately 27.7 trillion rials (about $656 million) during the last 10 years (March 21, 2013 through March 20, 2023),” Fattahi noted.
The official also added that drilling work was carried out on 300,000 square meters of land in the country last year, while in the last 10 years, drilling was carried out an area of 1.77 million square meters.
According to him, the value of Iran's mineral reserves has been estimated at $28.7 billion for the last 10 years.
Fattahi said that currently, Iran has 977 million tons of iron ore, 673 million tons of coal, 363 million tons of salt water, 17 million tons of bauxite, 14 million tons of copper, 7 million tons of zinc and lead reserves.
Reportedly, Iran's mineral reserves are estimated to be over 50 billion tons. On average, more than 400 million tons of various minerals are produced from the country’s mines per year.
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