Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 10
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
Iran's south eastern Sistan and Balouchestan province holds about 250,000 metric tons of antimony reserves, Nader Mirshekar, the provincial head of Industries, Mines and Trade Organization said, Mehr news agency reported Dec. 10.
He said that the reserves which discovered in the province's Sefidabeh mine are equal to 10 percent of the world's estimated 2 million metric tons of antimony reserves.
Mirshekar said that during the initial exploration operations about 7,000 metric tons of antimony with purity of 26 to 32 percent was discovered in the mine, adding the operation is currently underway.
The mine is capable of producing 100 metric tons of antimony per month with high purity, he said.
Antimony is a rare chemical element which is used in petrochemical, electronic, aerospace, military and chemical industries.
Earlier Hossein Asgarzadeh, head of the Iranian Mineral Processing Research Center said that the country plans to establish an antimony ingot production unit with a capacity of 3 metric tons per day.
Chairman of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization Amir Amini formerly said that the country needs some 100 metric tons of antimony ingots annually.
Amiri went on to note that, some 500 to 1,000 metric tons of rock is produced from the mines each year that exported, adding that currently efforts are underway to produce ingot using a fully indigenous knowledge.
Umid Niayesh is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @UmidNiayesh