Over 66% of the plan drawn up to produce copper cathodes in the current Iranian calendar year (ending March 20, 2015) has been realized, IRNA reported on Friday citing a top official at the ministry of industry, mine, and trade.
Mohammad Fatemian, the general manager for the bureau of mineral industries, said “based on the targets set for this year; some 194,000 metric tons (mt) of copper cathodes should be produced while more than 129,000 mt has already been produced during the first eight months of the year.
Pointing to the current production capacity of 255,000 mt per year, the official stressed that the production should reach 850,000 mt, according to the county’s 2025 Vision Plan.
Iran holds some 5% of the global copper reserves, having 34 copper mines. Based on official reports, the current capacity for the downstream copper industry including copper wire, copper sections, and copper tubes is 940,000 mt. Meanwhile, the efficiency in the sector is as low as 20% due to low consumption in the country.
According to Fatemian, during the eight-month period this year, some 157,000 mt of copper anodes have been produced while the figure for copper concentrate stood at over 523,000 mt.
Some 108.7 million mt of copper concentrate has been extracted during the period, according to the ministry of industry, mine, and trade. It is expected that the smaller mines across the country could add an annual amount of 200,000 mt to the extraction capacity in five years. The increase, according to officials, needs at least 2 trillion rials in investment.
