Currently 80 mineral exploration projects are underway covering 200,000 square kilometers of the country’s mineral-rich areas to discover new reserves, said deputy for development projects of Mines and Mining Industries of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization, Jamshid Mollarahman at the conclusion of the 7th Symposium of Iranian Society of Economic Geology in Semnan Province on Thursday. “The mining sector has to increase annual iron ore extraction by more than 130 million tons to live up to the 55 million tons of annual steel production as per the National 20-year Vision Plan (2005-25),” IRNA quoted the official as saying. He added that there are 3,000 iron ore, limestone, gold and bauxite mines active in the country, noting that Iran’s extractable mineral reserves are currently estimated at 1.7 billion tons. The Symposium of Iranian Society of Economic Geology began in the city of Damghan in Semnan Province on Wednesday and was attended by 200 geologists from all over the country. They discussed new findings in economic geology-related fields such as petrology, environmental geology, geochemistry, hydrochemistry and geophysics.
