Iran has discovered the largest known porphyry copper deposit in the Middle East, its official media outlets reported.
The deposit containing around 3 billion tons of copper ore would, if verified, quickly move on to the radar of companies driving the transition to green energy, as vastly expanded volumes of copper are needed to drive that transition, meaning the race is on to locate giant deposits, the likes of which some Iranian officials are claiming to have discovered, bne Intellinews wrote.
What’s more, a huge lithium deposit claimed by Iran already has commodity dealers excited about the potentially immense role Iran could play in supplying raw materials to emerging green industries, such as electric vehicle manufacturing.
State broadcaster IRIB and the official news agency IRNA relayed news of the copper discovery, also bigger than anything of its kind in North Africa, that appears to have been first reported by provincial media covering the southeastern province of Kerman.
“The future of nations is tied to the copper industry,” Amir Hassanzadeh, Kerman Governorate’s deputy for economic affairs, was quoted as saying, noting Iran is located on a very favorable part of the world's copper belt.
Porphyry copper deposits are made up of orebodies that can also contain silver, gold and molybdenum. Such deposits are currently the world's largest source of copper ore.
The deposit discovered in Kerman is located in the vicinity of Sarcheshmeh, which already boasts a major open-cast copper mining and refining complex with a workforce of 18,000 exploiting a giant lode estimated as containing a whopping billion tons of copper.
The new deposit was mapped with the drilling of 106 exploratory boreholes with a length of 93,000 meters. Plans are in place for a second exploration phase that will drill 60 boreholes with a length of around 80,000 meters. This could conceivably boost the porphyry copper estimate to 4 billion tons or more.
Iran currently ranks fifth in the world for copper reserves. The country also has extensive copper reserves in Sungun near the country’s northwestern border with Turkey. In fact, last week copper production was launched in Sungun, where a modern smelter has been set up for output produced by open-cast operations.
The National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICICO) is the third largest company on the Tehran Stock Exchange.
Behrouz Rahmati, a NICICO executive, noted that Iran's mineral reserves stood at 57 billion tons, ranking the country as one of the top 10 mineral-rich nations in the world.
He said copper, the third most consumed metal in the world, has already brought Iran $10 billion in foreign exchange.
Analysts say that given the expanding appetite for copper driven by the green energy revolution, there is still a sore lack of large-scale copper mines worldwide.
This year saw Anglo-Australian giant Rio Tinto’s long-delayed launch of mining at the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold mine in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert.
When the mining operation peaks in 2030, it will be the world’s fourth-biggest source of copper, churning out half a million tons a year, according to Rio. That’s enough to meet demands for making around six million electric vehicles or 60 of the biggest wind farms.
Copper Industry’s FY 2022-23 Output
The National Iranian Copper Industries Company produced 348,969 tons of copper anode in the fiscal 2022-23 (ended March 21), unchanged compared to the year before, latest data released by the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization show.
A total of 1.72 million tons of copper concentrate were produced during the year, also unchanged.
The production of copper cathode hit 300,011 tons, up 5%.
Molybdenum production stood at 9.630 tons, up 16%.
NICICO is a leading copper producer in the Middle East and North Africa region. Its mines hold close to 14% of Asia’s copper deposits and about 3% of global reserves.
The functions of this company include extraction from copper mines to produce high-grade products such as cathode, slab, billet and 8-mm wires.
“Iran’s standing rose to fifth place in terms of global ranking of copper reserves,” vice president for development and exploration of the National Iranian Copper Industries Company said last year, adding that until recently, the country had the seventh largest copper reserves in the world.
“With recent discoveries in Sungun and the addition of 1 billion tons of new reserves to the mine in East Azarbaijan Province, as well as the discovery of new reserves in other mines of the company, including Sarcheshmeh, Miduk and a new mine near Sarcheshmeh in Kerman Province, the volume of the company's copper reserves has increased from 18 billion tons to 19 billion tons,” Rahmati was also quoted as saying by Fars News Agency.
Sungun Complex, located in East Azarbaijan Province, is Iran’s largest copper mine.
Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex is the world’s second largest open cast copper mine located in Kerman Province. It also contains substantial amounts of molybdenum, gold and other rare metals.
“According to the United States Geological Survey’s latest report, following these explorations, the ranking of our country has risen to fifth place after Chile, Australia, Peru and Russia,” Rahmati said.
Promising Future in World Economy
Thanks to the strategic importance of Cooper in the future of the world economy, investment in the industry has a bright outlook, former head of NICICO, Ardeshir Sa’d-Mohammadi, said earlier in 2022.
"Presently, electricity accounts for 21% of world energy consumption. This share will increase to 51% in 2050 and the most important element in this strategy is copper,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Copper is an industrial base metal essential for global growth because of its excellent electrical conductivity. It is vital for the transition to sustainable sources of energy to ensure a clean and green future and for enabling digitalization, according to London-based research group Acuity Knowledge Partners.
“In the next 10 years, at least 35% of the world's vehicles will be electric, considering the average consumption of 4 kg of copper in ordinary vehicles and 89 kg in electric vehicles, we will see a change in demand for copper in cars in the near future,” said the NICICO chief.
Acuity Knowledge Partners estimates that EVs will generate additional copper demand of 1.5m tons in 2025 and 3.3m tons (forecast to be 10% of total demand) by 2030 versus less than 500 kilotons in 2020. The world’s biggest auto market, China, expects EVs to account for c.60% of vehicle sales by 2035. The US expects them to account for 50% of vehicle sales by 2030. The number of EVs is forecast to reach 7 million by 2025, requiring half a million charging ports to support them.
He noted that it is predicted that by 2035, 1.3 billion people will be added to the world's population and even with the current per capita consumption of copper, which is 3.2 kg, we will face an increasing demand for copper that year due to population growth.
Sa’d-Mohammadi said the increasing use of renewable energy in the world will be accompanied by an increase in copper consumption.
He referred to the annual investment of $4 trillion in infrastructure, including roads, airports, railroads and electricity, all of which require copper.
“In 2021, 98% of copper companies were profitable, so the outlook for this element will be logical and profitable,” he said.
