Tehran, Iran, May 23
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad - Trend:
Mehrdad Akbarian, the chairman of Iron Ore Producers & Exporters Association of Iran, said the country is rapidly developing its mines in a bid to increase its total annual steel output capacity to 55 million tons by 2025.
Iran needs to extract 165 million tons of iron ore from its mines across the country in order to be able to produce 55 million tons of steel by 2025, Akbarian told Trend on May 23.
"Last year, we managed to extract 76 million tons of iron ore, the bulk of which goes to domestic consumption with 21 million tons in form of concentration, pelletizing and sponge iron production," the Iranian official said.
Akbarian said the country’s export of iron ore has witnessed a decrease due to the rising domestic consumption.
He further urged the need for supporting the export of steel and its market as it can play a key role in battling unemployment in the country.
Iran says it possesses 7 percent of the world’s total mineral reserves worth about $700 billion, including the world’s largest deposits of copper, zinc and iron ore, but this figure could rise to $1.4 trillion with new discoveries. The provinces of Kerman, Yazd, East and West Azerbaijan and Golestan bear much of the country’s mineral reserves.