Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.23
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran will inaugurate two copper concentrate production plants, each with an annual production capacity of 150,000 metric tons, next month.
The chairman of the board of directors of National Iranian Copper Industries Company said Sungun and Sarcheshmeh plants will come on stream in northwest and southeast of the country, Iran's IRNA news agency reported on November 23.
Managing Director of National Iranian Copper Industries Company Ahmad Moradalizadeh said in October that the country has the potential to reach the exports capacity of $2 billion in the next few years.
"The country's production capacity will also reach 180,000-200,000 metric tons in the next 10 years," he said, Iran's ISNA News Agency reported on October 26.
"We plan to increase the country's total copper output up to 400,000 metric tons per year by the end of the Iranian calendar year of 1398 (to end March 20, 2020). Then Iran will be able to annually export 200,000 metric tons of copper," Moradalizadeh explained.
He went to note that the world's total copper output is around 21 million metric tons.
"Just 17.5 million out of the mentioned figure is produced from mines and the rest is produced by recycling copper products," Moradalizadeh noted.
Iran holds three per cent of the world's mineral reserves which puts the country first in the Middle East and third in Asia.
Iran is ranks among the 15 major mineral-rich countries of the world and exports its industrial and mineral products to 159 countries, including Iraq, China, the United Arab Emirates, India and Afghanistan.
The important mines of Iran include coal, metallic minerals, sand and gravel, chemical minerals and salt.
The country has the world's largest zinc and second largest copper deposits and ranks ninth for its iron reserves.