Tehran, Iran, Jan. 17
By Milad Fashtami - Trend:
Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) has restarted the development plan 32 incomplete mineral projects.
Deputy Industry, Mine, and trade minister Mehdi Karbasian said that seven steel projects with the combined output capacity of 7 million metric tons per day are among the mentioned projects, Iran's IRNa News Agency reported on Jan. 17.
"Some 9 trillion rials (some $339.6 million based on the official exchange rate of US dollar) has been invested in the mentioned steel projects in the current Iranian calendar year (which started on March 21, 2014)," he added.
"The underway steel projects are located in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, South Khorasan, Fars, Khuzestan, East Azarbaijan, Razavi Khorasan, and Kerman province," the official noted.
Iran's proven mineral reserves stand at 37 billion tons.
The country is ranked 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. Iran has the world's largest zinc and second largest copper deposits and ranks ninth for its iron reserves.
The official website of Iran's Industry, Mine, and Trade ministry names exploratory operations in aluminum and Iron ore mines as the top priorities of the ministry for investment.
Aluminum and Iron mines are also among the four top discovery priorities.
According to the ministry, Iran daily produces 1.2 million metric tons of minerals.