Iranian miners paid 3.38 trillion rials ($27 million) in mining royalties to the government during the first half of the current fiscal year (March 21-Sept. 22), which indicates an 18.7% decrease compared with the same period of last year.
Latest figures released by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade show miners in the southern Kerman Province had the highest contribution during the six-month period with 1.41 trillion rials ($11 million), followed by East Azarbaijan Province with 639 billion rials ($5 million) and Markazi Province with 221 billion rials ($1.7 million).
According to IRNA, nearly 138,000 people are currently working in Iran’s 5,800 active mines.
The country is home to 68 types of minerals with more than 60 billion tons of potential reserves, of which 40 billion tons are proven reserves.
The value of Iran’s mineral resource is estimated to exceed $770 billion.
