TEHRAN- Production of iron ore concentrate in Iran during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22) has risen four percent compared to the same period of time in the past year, IRIB reported on Tuesday citing the data released by Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO).

The IMIDRO’s data put the country’s iron ore concentrate output at over 27 million tons during the mentioned seven-month period.

As previously announced, Iran’s export of iron ore concentrate rose 96.6 percent during the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), compared to its preceding year.

The country exported 5.552 million tons of the product worth $398 million in the past year.

In a bid to prevent the exports of unprocessed minerals, creating more value added and meeting the requirements of domestic producers for the raw materials, Iran has levied a 25-percent duty on the exports of raw minerals (specially iron ore) since September 23.

The new duty is encouraging production of more processed minerals such as pellet and concentrate instead of selling the raw minerals.

MA/MA