Iran, Australia Discuss Cooperation in Mining Sector

In a meeting between officials from Mines and Metals Development Investment Company and those from Australia this week, the two sides expressed interest in expanding mining and exploration cooperation.

The meeting was attended by Managing Director of MMDIC Azizollah Asari and Australia’s Ambassador to Iran Ian Biggs, who was accompanied by members of Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), including Gerard Seeber, Austrade’s senior trade commissioner for the Middle East and North Africa.

MMDIC’s subsidiaries, including Golgohar Mining & Industrial Company, Chadormalu Mining & Industrial Company, Arfa Iron & Steel Company, Gohar Zamin Iron Ore Company and Sabanour Mining and Industrial Development Company, introduced their companies’ capabilities to the Australian side and pointed to potential avenues of cooperation.

“[MMDIC’s] capabilities and potentials, as well as developments achieved by the holding’s subsidiaries in the mining industry far exceeded our initial expectations,” the Australian envoy said.

Austrade is the Australian government’s trade, investment and education promotion agency.

The meeting’s primary aim, according to Asari, was finding legal and effective ways of overcoming the plethora of limitations in the way of economic and industrial cooperation with foreign companies in the mining sector.

According to MMDIC’s website, the local mining and metals group established in 1997 is focused on exploring, mining, processing and marketing commodities such as iron ore, pellet, copper, steel, coal and electricity. The holding is a stakeholder in a number of Iran’s largest producers.

“MMDIC’s priorities include obtaining new technologies, empowering workforce, attracting foreign investment, procuring advanced machinery and using latest advancements in mineral exploration,” Asari said.

The official called on the Australian side to share their expertise in mining exploration with the holding and utilize it in the new 1,200-square-kilometer zinc-rich mineral zone recently discovered by Sabanour in Kerman Province’s Ravak County.

Further explorations in the zone are meant to help MMDIC expand its product portfolio, he added.

“Exploring this zone can prove highly lucrative, considering the depleting zinc reserves worldwide,” the official said.

Asari described the meeting as highly positive and added that a high-ranking Australian mining delegation is expected to visit Iran soon.