Tehran, Iran, December 17
By Mehdi Sepahvand –- Trend:
Iran is expecting official reports to confirm discovery of 2 billion tons of minerals, according to Mehdi Karbasian, deputy minister and head of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO).
Speaking to a press conference December 17, Karbasian said the explorations results will be out by March, Trend correspondent reported from the event.
"These will hopefully constitute 2 billion tons of new discovery, which added with the 3 billion tons we already had, will make 5 billion tons as the country’s discovered minerals," the official noted.
Elsewhere in the press conference, he noted that since the enforcement of the Iran nuclear deal, aka Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2016, Iran’s mining industries have attracted 3.5 billion euros finance.
Citing an example, Karbasian said the titanium mine in Kahnouj (in central Iran), which holds 450 million tons of the mineral is about to be tapped using Australian-European technology.
"Except for one mine, the Sangan mine, we have privatized all others. This gave us the opportunity not only to finish stalled projects, but to attract 80 trillion rials (USD at 42,000 rials) investment from the private sector," the deputy minister said elsewhere in his remarks, underlining that the government is making the mining sector more attractive for investors by narrowing down its offered projects to specifically highly promising cites.