The National Iranian Copper Industries Company’s sales totaled a record high of 227 trillion rials ($1.41 billion) in the last fiscal year that ended on March 19, 2020, to witness a staggering rise of 127% compared to the year before.
According to NICICO Managing Director Ardeshir Sa'd-Mohammadi, the company’s domestic sales accounted for over 110 billion rials ($687,500) of the total sum and the rest ($722 million) pertained to exports.
He noted that both earnings from exports and domestic sales registered all-time highs, ISNA reported.
“The value of exports was twice those of the preceding year. NICICO produced 1.18 million tons of copper concentrates last year, which is also a record high,” he added.
The company also produced 250,133 tons of copper cathode during the period, marking an all-time high.
Describing the volume of last year's sales as a milestone in the 48-year-history of the company, Mohammad Aghajanlou, senior official with Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization, said the total turnover of the Iranian copper industry exceeded $4.5 billion last year and that NICICO posted a return on investment of 143%.
He added that copper cathode accounted for more than two-thirds of total domestic consumption for pure copper, which was over 160,000 tons last year.
"This means copper concentrate, a relatively raw from of the metal, accounted for the bulk of Iran’s exports, which issue faced criticism. Many believe NICICO should create a bigger capacity for using copper concentrate inside Iran rather than shipping it in large quantities to countries like China,” he said.
Aghajanlou rejected the criticism and said the current supply and demand situation in the Iranian copper industry makes exports of concentrates preferable.
NICICO is a leading copper producer in the Middle East and North Africa region and its mines hold close to 14% of Asia’s copper deposits and about 3% of global reserves.
On July 03, 1972, Kerman Sarcheshmeh Copper Mines Company was incorporated and in 1976 it was renamed National Iranian Copper Industries Company, which encompasses all operations of copper mines in the country.
The functions of this company include: Extraction and operation of copper mines and the production of high-grade ore and copper products such as cathode, slab, billet and 8-mm wires. Among the most important copper mines of the country, one may name: Sarcheshmeh and Miduk in Kerman and Sungun in East Azarbaijan, according to the company's website.
World's Eighth Biggest Copper Producer
With an annual production of 34.5 million tons, Iran is currently the world’s eighth biggest producer of copper in the world, the managing director of NICICO said earlier, adding that with the development of mineral explorations, the country will soon ascend to the seventh rank.
Iran holds about 4 billion tons of estimated copper reserves, according to the Geological Survey of Iran.
According to the official, Iran’s copper reserves make up 4.15% of the global copper reserves, Fars News Agency reported.
Iran's major Sungun Copper Mine’s reserves exceed 1.2 billion tons while that of Miduk Copper Mine surpass 500 million tons.
According to Sa'd-Mohammadi, the copper industry has a 50-million-ton share in Iran's annual mineral output.
Taking into account the development of copper mines of Der Alo Copper Mine, Darezar Copper Mine and Khatunabad (all three in Kerman Province), as well as new explorations, Sa'd-Mohammadi believes the country’s copper reserves will last for the next 100 years at least.
20% of Turkey's Copper Market Targeted
Iran is hopeful of meeting one-fifth of Turkey’s need for copper within the next two years by increasing investment in the mining and production of the precious metal in its northwestern province of East Azarbaijan.
“Around $1 billion have already been invested in the mining and production of copper in the province (a center of industry and business near the Iranian-Turkish border),” the NICICO chief said in November.
The official noted that the investment plans were aimed at allowing Iran raise its share of copper exports to Turkey, which is importing 500,000 tons of copper cathode from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan every year.
He added that the main copper projects introduced in the region included a smelter, a refinery and a third phase of concentrate production at the sprawling Sungun Mine, the largest open-cast copper mine in Iran located around 150 kilometers from the provincial capital of Tabriz, Iran’s sixth largest city.
Iran is tapping into its mines and metal deposits like never before, as it feels the pressure of US sanctions that have hampered its access to normal oil revenues.
That comes as the United States has specifically targeted Iran’s metal trade and production with a series of bans since May this year.
Experts believe sanctions would fail to stifle Iran’s growth in the sector, as customers have used third countries for importing metals from Iran.
Sa’d-Mohammadi says the development of copper industry in northwest Iran was an urgent necessity, given the rising demand for metal in the world.
"The European Union has identified copper as a primary field for investment mainly because of the demand that would be created as a result of electrification in the automotive industry," he added.
According to the senior industrialist, a maximum of 20 kilograms of copper are used in the production of normal cars, adding that the figure increases fourfold to 80 kilograms in electric cars.
Bahram Shakouri, a member of Iran’s Copper Association, says the United States' unilateral sanctions against Iran have failed to block the export of copper from the country, adding that Iran plans to increase its annual production of copper cathode to 450,000 tons.
According to the official, sanctions imposed on Iran have only restricted the country’s ability to directly ship its copper to traditional destinations like Europe, Japan and South Korea, adding that China is currently Iran’s main copper customer, and export to other destinations is carried out via third countries.
