There is no restriction on the private sector to extract precious metals, excluding uranium, IRNA quoted the head of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) as saying on Wednesday.
Mehdi Karbasian urged the private sector to invest in exploration and extraction of precious metals from mines across the country, giving an assurance that the IMIDRO “would support any plans proposed by the private sector.”
Mineral-rich countries pay special attention to the extraction of precious metals like gold, silver, titanium, palladium, and vanadium because these metals are widely used in new industries, said Karbasian who is also the deputy minister of industry, mine and trade.
IMIDRO is Iran’s major state-owned holding company active in the mining sector. A semi-industrial plant in the southeastern city of Kahnooj, which is run by the IMIDRO, produces 730 metric tons of titanium every year, while 130,000 metric tons of concentrate and 70,000 metric tons of titanium slag pigment are produced in the organization’s industrial plant, which is located in the same city.
Another precious metal plant run by IMIDRO is the one extracting from the Zarshooran gold and silver mines in the northwestern province of Azarbaijan, which can annually produce 3 metric tons of gold and 1.2 metric tons of silver. The second phase of the gold mine is also being completed with the same production capacity.
According to the IMIDRO, the administration is implementing a comprehensive plan to nationally explore new mines as part of a three-year project which started a year ago. The plan will cover 200,000 square kilometers of the country’s area, mainly high-potential regions where geological, geochemical, and geophysical characteristics are favorable for resource occurrence.
