The constructions of two iron ore pellet-making plants in Sangan mineral zone with a total production capacity of 10 million tons per year are scheduled to be completed by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2017), Mehdi Karbasian, the head of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization, said.
Sangan region, located in Khorasan Razavi Province and dubbed “Iran’s Mineral Heaven”, is home to Iran’s largest and the world’s ninth largest iron ore reserves estimated at about 1.2 billion tons.
Sangan Iron Ore Complex has the capacity to produce 15 million tons of iron ore pellets and 17.5 million tons of concentrate annually, according to Ali Seddiqifar, managing director of the complex, was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
Based on the goals set in the 20-Year National Vision Plan (2005-25), the steel industry is set to boost its crude steel production capacity from the current rate of about 25 million tons to 55 million tons per year by the end of 2025.
To meet the ambitious target, iron ore pellet-making capacity needs to rise from the current annual rate of 28 million tons to 48 million tons by 2018, 82 million by 2021 and 85 million tons by 2025.
Iron ore pellet is an enriched form of the metal shaped into balls and used as raw material for blast furnaces, which is used in integrated steelmaking, during which coke, iron ore and pellets react together under a hot air flow to form liquid hot metal called pig iron.
