The Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development & Renovation has defined $16 billion worth of mining projects by the Iranian year 1400 (March 2021-2) for domestic and foreign investors, announced the chairman of the organization.
“More than $3.5 billion worth of investments in mines and mining industries will be made by the end of the current Iranian year [March 19, 2020],” Khodadad Gharibpour said on the sidelines of the Eighth International Investment Opportunities in Iran’s Mines & Mining Industries Exhibition & Conference, also known as "MINEX 2019".
The private sector has made an investment of 12 trillion rials ($105.26 million) in mining industries in the current fiscal year (started March 21) and with the introduction of new opportunities, private sector investments are expected to increase considerably, IRIB News reported.
Iran is among the top 10 richest countries in terms of mineral reserves and mineral exploration is one of the government’s priorities, Gharibpour added.
Also speaking on the sidelines of the event, Daryoush Esmaili, the head of Iranian Mining Engineering Organization, said so far less than 10% of the capacity of Iranian mines have been explored.
Most mining explorations in Iran have been carried out at shallow depths, while excavating deeper would lead to a twofold increase in the discovery of mineral reserves.
According to Gharibpour, Iran has the largest area under mineral exploration in the Middle East.
The Iranian Mines & Mining Industries Development & Renovation, the biggest state-owned holding in the mining sector of Iran, plans to cover 300,000 square kilometers of the country's explorable land for mineral explorations by the end of the current fiscal year.
IMIDRO carried out exploration over 270,000 square kilometers during President Hassan Rouhani's first term in office (August 2013-17).
According to Gharibpour, who is also the chairman of IMIDRO, 65% of Iran’s total explorable mineral areas (1 million kilometers) belong to the organization.
IMIDRO and Iranian Space Agency signed a memorandum of understanding recently to expand cooperation in improving productivity in mining and mineral industries using advanced space technologies.
Manager of exploration at IMIDRO, Ali Asqarzadeh, said the highest volume of explorations in Iran relates to copper, iron ore and coal.
“The exploration budget is predicted to rise by 10% in 2019 compared to 2018,” he said.
According to Deputy Industries Minister Jafar Sarqeini, Iran aims to produce 550 million tons of minerals in the current fiscal year.
Iran is home to 68 types of minerals with more than 37 billion tons of proven reserves and 57 billion tons of potential reserves.
According to the United States Geological Survey, Iran holds the world's largest zinc, ninth largest copper, 10th largest iron ore, fifth largest gypsum and barite, and 10th largest uranium reserves.
Overall, Iran is home to more than 7% of global mineral reserves.
According to the Persian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad, Iran is home to nearly 10,000 mines, only 6,000 of which are active.
The country’s mineral reserves stand at 60 billion tons, close to 40 billion tons of which are proven.
MINEX 2019 concluded in Tehran on Oct. 9. Held at the capital's Imam Khomeini Mosalla, the three-day event hosted more than 130 domestic and foreign businesses from 18 countries, namely Italy, Germany, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, China, South Korea, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Canada, Pakistan and India.
The expo was held in the three categories of exploration, extraction and processing. Industry players in the fields of machinery and investment are taking part.
According to Esmaeili, 15 trillion rials ($131.57 million) in mining royalties are deposited with the government’s treasury every year.
