The Sixth International Exhibition of Mining, Mineral Industries and Mineral Processing as well as the Fourth International Exhibition of Mining and Road Construction Machinery will be held concurrently from June 24-27 at Kerman’s International Exhibition Center.
Some 120 domestic and 20 foreign companies are expected to showcase their latest products and services in the fields of mining, including exploration, extraction, processing, export, investment and machinery at the upcoming events.
Companies from Germany, Italy, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, China, Switzerland, Sweden and Japan are scheduled to attend, ILNA reported.
The exhibition has been organized with the aim of attracting investment, completing the production chain to produce products with higher value-added, acquiring latest technologies, increasing raw material production, developing upstream mining industries, boosting exports and technology transfer, as well as increasing safety in mines.
The exhibition will be open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. local time.
Kerman is a major mineral hub in Iran. Golgohar Mining and Industrial Company, located 50 km from Sirjan in the southwest Kerman Province, operates mines containing six ore bodies spread over an area of 40 square kilometers. The total deposits of iron ore in the region are estimated to be over 1.135 billion tons.
The major ore body has a deposit of more than 650 million tons, according to the company’s website.
The mines are connected to the Trans-Iranian Railroad through the Tehran-Bandar Abbas line.
Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine, located in Kerman Province, is the world’s second largest and the Middle East’s largest open-pit copper mine. The mine possesses over 826 million tons of proven and 1.2 billion tons of estimated copper reserves that constitute 5% of the world’s total, alongside substantial amounts of minerals such as molybdenum, gold and rare metals.
The mine was first discovered in 1928, but it was not until nearly 40 years later that detailed exploration projects were undertaken. In 1967, Kerman Copper Industries Company was established in partnership with a British firm, which led to the discovery of 400 million tons of copper reserves. It lacked the means and the financial capability to operate the mine and was therefore purchased by the government.
In the early 1970s, state-owned Sarcheshmeh Copper Mines Company took over the mine and approached the American Anaconda Copper Mining Company to utilize its expertise in copper mining.
The copper complex was established and production kicked off up until the victory of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, which brought about the nationalization of SCMC and Anaconda’s assets and the establishment of NICICO, currently Iran’s largest copper producer.
