Iran and metallurgical industry situation of mineral resources

Iran is a mineral resources are very rich country, it has been proved more than 60, except with world-famous oil and gas resources, mainly gold, copper, zinc, lead, chromium, iron, coal, tin, manganese, aluminum, nickel, magnesium, phosphorus, antimony, tungsten and iron oxide, etc., is abundant, the grade of some of the metal is very high, has the very high exploitation value.

According to the statistics released by the Ministry of Mineral Industry of Iran, Iran's proven mineral reserves are 27 billion tons at present, 3,800 of which are distributed throughout the country. At present, 56 kinds of minerals have been mined, and the annual output of mineral products is 150 million tons, accounting for 0.55% of the total reserves and 1.2% of the global total output of mineral products. In 2004, Iran exported $1.4 billion of mineral products, a 39.3 percent increase over the previous year.

Iran has a very rich copper resources, the current proved reserves of about 3 billion tons, the average grade 0.8%, accounting for 5% of the world's total reserves, ranking the third in the world. In 2004, Iran's annual copper production increased to 280,000 tonnes, including 200,000 tonnes of anodic copper, after the 80,000 tonne/year Khatunabad copper smelter came on line.

The proved reserves of zinc mine are 230 million tons, with an average grade of 20%, ranking first in the world. Proved reserves of chromium ore are about 20 million tons, and Iran consumes 4,000 to 5,000 tons of ferrochrome annually, which it imports. This year, when the Sabutzwa ferrochrome plant with an annual output of 25,000 tons is put into operation, it not only meets the needs of the country, but also has 20,000 tons of ferrochrome available for export.

Iran has about 4.7 billion tons of iron ore reserves, of which four large iron ore mines have combined reserves of 3 billion tons.

Iran, which has about 7.6 billion tons of coal reserves, uses little thermal coal because of its oil and gas reserves, and only uses some of the coking coal mined. The country's rich mineral resources have ensured the development of its metallurgical industry. Last year, Iran's total mineral product production grew by 10 percent, with steel producing 9 million tons, up 12 percent, aluminum 211,000 tons, up 16 percent, and copper 152,000 tons, up 4 percent. Iran plans to invest $16 billion to $17 billion in 14 mineral projects during the "Fourth Five-Year Plan" period to further accelerate the development of the metallurgical industry.

This year, with the introduction of Article 44 of the constitution, the government immediately set about privatizing large mines, the first of which were transferred to co-operative companies to operate, including the Salchesmai copper mine, the Anghuran zinc mine and large iron and coal mines in Kerman province.

In 2004, Iran consumed 12.2 million tons of steel, imported 8.1 million tons, and produced 28 million tons of steel under the "4th and 5th Plan".