TEHRAN - Vice Chairman of Iran Stone Association (ISA) said Iran is extracting only one percent of its mineral reserves while the figure should be five percent based on international standards.

“If Iran exploited its mineral reserves according to world standards, the revenues from this sector would have been several times more than that of oil,” Malek Rahmati told IRNA on Sunday.

Iran has one percent of the world's population, one percent of the world's area and one percent of the world's mineral reserves.

According to the Statistical Center of Iran, Iran’s mineral reserves currently amount to 25.7 billion tons, of which 67 percent or 17 billion tons is limestone, while 10 percent or 2.5 billion tons is the share of iron ore, Rahmati said.

The official put the total value of the country’s mineral output in the Iranian calendar year of 1396 (March 2017-March 2018) at $1.3 billion, accounting for 0.7 percent of the country’s total gross domestic product (GDP).

“Last year [March 21, 2018-March 20, 2019] the value of the country’s minerals and mining industry's exports amounted to more than $9.2 billion, accounting 21 percent of the total non-oil exports.

Last week, Deputy Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Jafar Sarqini said the country’s mining sector is expected to export up to $10 billion of minerals and mining industry products by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 19, 2020).

“Mines of Iran will not only meet the needs of the country's industrial plants and construction industry but will also export about $9-$10 billion of minerals and other products by the end of the year,” Sarqini said on the sidelines of a gathering of the country’s supreme council of mining in the city of Zanjan, west-central Iran.

Development of the country’s mining industry and especially expanding mineral exploration has become one of the main strategies of Iran’s Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry in recent years.

Back in August, Head of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) announced that exploration operations were started in 300,000 square meters of land across the country.

According to Khodadad Gharibpour, the country’s private sector has invested 11.3 trillion rials (about $269.04 million) in the mining sector since last December up to August.

EF/MA