TEHRAN- Iran exported $1.072 billion of iron ore in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2018), which indicates 31.1 percent rise from its previous year’s figure, IRNA reported on Tuesday citing the data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

China was the main buyer of Iran’s iron ore in the past year, importing $1.043 billion of the product from Iran, which is 97 percent of the total exports.

Iraq, India, Russia and Afghanistan stood at the next places after China in the past year.

As reported, Iran’s exports of iron ore in 2017 stood at $1.4 billion, accounting for 1.5 percent of the global market.

The country’s exports from the mining sector stood at $9 billion in the past Iranian calendar year, according to Deputy Industry Minister Mehdi Karbasian.

Karbasian, who is also the head of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), has announced that Iran exported 740,000 tons of sponge iron and 18 million tons of iron ore concentrate in the past year.

IMIDRO and its affiliated companies inaugurated $2 billion of projects in the said time, the official added.

As Karbasian announced, by the end of the present Iranian year (March 20, 2019), about $6 billion of new projects will be inaugurated in Iranian mining sector.

Iran is one of the top 10 mineral-rich countries where 68 types of minerals have been identified so far, including the world’s largest deposits of copper, zinc and iron, which have been tempting international investors after the lifting of economic sanctions against the country in January 2016.

MA/MA