Iran 's industrial and mineral exports have reached nearly 18 billion dollars during the first 10 months of the current Iranian year starting March 21, 2010.
Iran's Ministry of Industries and Mines said in a report released on Wednesday Iran's exports of industrial and mineral products increased by more than 22 percent to reach 17.963 billion dollars, compared with the same period last year, Press TV reported.
Iran is ranked among the 15 major mineral rich countries and exports its industrial and mineral products to 159 countries including Iraq, China, the United Arab Emirates, India and Afghanistan, the report says.
The country with roughly one percent of the world's population holds more than seven percent of the total mineral reserves of the globe. It lies on 37 billion tons of proven reserves and holds more than 57 billion tons of potential reserves of some 68 types of minerals, including chrome, coal, copper, gold, iron, lead, tin and zinc.
Iran has the world's largest zinc and second largest copper deposits and ranks ninth in iron.
Last week, Iran's Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini said that the Islamic Republic's non-oil exports hit 26 billion dollars during a ten-month period ended January 21.
"At the end of the last (Iranian) year, the figure passed 26 billion dollars and in the last 10 months of this year, we exported 26 billion dollars," Hosseini said.
The official noted that Iran could boost the volume of its non-oil exports by following the model applied in neighboring Turkey, which exports an annual 100 billion dollars worth of non-oil commodities.
Iran is the third-largest country in the Middle East and Central Asia in terms of exports and imports, according to a report by the International Monetary Fund.