1.5b Tons of New Metal Reserves

Over 1.5 billion tons of proven metal reserves have been discovered since President Hassan Rouhani took office in August 2013, deputy minister of industries, mining and trade said on Wednesday. “A hundred and twenty-seven zones spanning 485,000 square kilometers were discovered during the period,” Jafar Sarqeyni was quoted as saying by IRNA.  “Of the 127 discovered zones, 102 zones were handed over to the private sector for extraction and the remaining 25 are unassigned due to the objections of the Department of Environment and the private sector’s disinterest in them,” he added. Iran is home to 68 types of minerals. The country holds over 40 billion tons of reserves with a potential value added of $770 billion, making up about 3% of the world’s mineral reserves.  There are 5,400 active mines across the country, of which 400 million tons of mineral reserves are extracted annually.