TEHRAN – The production of six major mining industry products has increased in the first three months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-June 20), the latest data released by Iran’s Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry show.

Based on the mentioned data, during the first quarter of this year, production of crude steel and steel products, copper cathode, cement, aluminum ingots, and alumina increased compared to the first quarter of the previous year, while the output of glass, glassware, coal concentrate, and chinaware was decreased.

As reported, aluminum ingots had the highest growth rate among the five products in the mentioned period with 46.3 percent rise, followed by cement, alumina, copper cathode, and steel products with 10, 2.3, 2.1, and 1.8 percent increase respectively.

The production of aluminum ingots stood at 95,000 tons in the said three months, while in the same period last year, 65,000 tons of this product were produced.

As for cement, in the current year’s Q1 16,353 tons of cement were produced compared to the 14,868 for the previous year’s same period.

The lowest production growth rate was reported for steel products, which grew by 1.8 percent year on year, according to the report.

The country’s steel products output increased from 5.388 million tons in the first quarter of the last year to 5.485 million tons in the same period this year.

According to the Industry Mining, and Trade Ministry, the mining sector accounted for 25 percent of the country’s non-oil revenues in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).

Iran is one of the top 10 mineral-rich countries in the world in which 68 types of minerals have been identified so far, including the world’s largest deposits of copper, zinc, and iron; so there are numerous large, medium and small-sized mines across the country that are being operated by the government or the private sector.

So, the country has set a new target for further development of its mining sector as the country’s economy is moving away from oil toward becoming oil-independent.

EF/MA