3 Kerman Mining Projects Inaugurated

President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated three iron ore and steel projects in Sirjan County during his visit to Iran’s southern Kerman Province.

The projects included Golgohar Mining and Industrial Company’s Iron Ore Concentrate Production Line 7 with a 2-million-ton capacity per year, Golgohar Iron & Steel Development Company’s direct-reduced iron mega module plant with a 1.7-million-ton capacity and the gas plants of Golgohar Mining and Industrial Company’s Combined Cycle Power Plant with a 332-megawatt capacity.

The three projects respectively attracted investments worth 700 billion rials and €49 million in foreign finance, 2.7 trillion rials and €63 million, and 1.2 trillion rials and €280 million, according to Golgohar Mining and Industrial Company’s Managing Director Nasser Taqizadeh.

“With six anomalies, Sirjan’s Golgohar Mineral Zone holds 26% of Iran’s iron ore deposits,” he told Madan 24, adding that the company is the only mineral complex in the country that operates a full iron ore to steel production chain.

Golgohar is Iran’s largest iron ore concentrate and pellet producer. It operates mines containing six ore bodies spread over 40 square kilometers. The total deposits of iron ore in the region are estimated to be over 1.13 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 route.

The iron ore giant is well on its way to expansion, as it recently issued 3 trillion rials ($about $66 million) worth of Islamic bonds to finance the purchase of ore concentrate production machinery used in its lines 5 and 6. The bonds were sold out in the first minutes of issuance on Wednesday.

Golgohar has had a good 10 months this fiscal year (March 21, 2017-Jan. 20, 2018), as it has produced 9.36 million tons of concentrate and 9.04 million tons of pellet, with sales reaching 1.74 and 9.09 million tons respectively.

Sales value amounted to 3.63 trillion rials ($79.84 million) and 33.11 trillion rials ($727.74 million) respectively for the period.

Exports made up 1.51 million tons of total concentrate sales for the period valued at 3.43 trillion rials ($75.6 million) and 107,399 tons of pellets worth 225.4 billion rials ($4.9 million).

During his visit to Kerman, President Rouhani was accompanied by Minister of Industries, Mining and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari, Minister of Energy Reza Ardakanian, Minister of Interior Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, Kerman Governor Alireza Razm-Hosseini and a host of provincial officials.