The 13th Iran Stone Exhibition (IRSE2023) is scheduled to be held from May 29 to June 2 at Shahr-e-Aftab Complex (aka Sun City) in southern Tehran, Bahram Shakouri, chairman of the Iran Stone Association, announced.
A total of 116 companies are expected to participate in this expo, of which 110 are Iranian and will be from China, Russia, India, Italy, Turkey and Greece, IRNA reported.
Iran reportedly ranks third in terms of variety and production volume of ornamental stones after China and India.
In many decorative stone processing units of the country, a huge amount of waste has increased the end price of processing and diminished our power to compete in global markets.
More than 2,500 rubble stone mines have been registered in Iran to date, constituting around 25% of the country’s total mines, data provided by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade show.
The active rubble stone mines have a 30% share of the country’s total operating mines (around 6,100).
The private sector owns most of the rubble mines, while the rest are managed by state-affiliated bodies.
In the construction sector, any stone that cannot be used in decoration is called rubble.
As an effective material for boosting strength and durability, rubble is especially used for filling-in walls and concrete production. It is also used in the chemicals, cosmetics and paper production sectors.
The country’s potential rubble reserves are estimated to stand at 12.5 billion tons.
About 21,000 people are directly involved in the rubble stone sector.
Estimations show that 59 industry branches can use rubble as their raw material.
Iran exports 1.5 million tons of stone annually, of which 900,000 tons are natural stone blocks and 49,000 tons are processed stone, according to Siamak Hajseyyed-Javadi, an advisor to Iran Stone Association.
“Unofficial figures have it that there are between 6,000 and 6,500 stone-cutting and stone-processing factories in the country, of which 1,000 are inactive and the rest are operating at 40% of their capacity,” he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency
“Local demand for stone hovers around 6-8 million tons. Iran is the fourth biggest producer of stone in the world after China, India and Turkey,” he added.
With more than 4 billion tons, Iran has the fourth largest stone reserves in the world.
The procurement of heavy machinery used in the mining industry is one of the biggest challenges facing this sector. Costs regarding repair and purchase of spare parts are mounting; even imports of secondhand machinery have become impossible.
Industrial machines now being used at stone mines are at least 10 years old. The mining sector could create added value only when the ministry and the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration lend their support.
