TEHRAN - Heavy Equipment Production Company (HEPCO) has signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with five major domestic mining companies to manufacture equipment and machinery for them.

The MOUs were signed on Monday with National Iranian Copper Industry Company (NICIC), Mobarakeh Steel Company, Gol Gohar Mining and Industrial Company, Chadormalu Mining and Industrial Company, Mining Investment Insurance Company (MIIC), and Iran Mine House, said Khodadad Gharibpour, the head of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO).

“In the first year of implementation of the mentioned MOUs, HEPCO will manufacture 200 road building machinery and in the second year another 700 machines will be manufactured, and in the future, the company will start manufacturing mining machines,” Gharibpour said.

In the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 20) which is named the year of “surge in production” by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Seyed Ali Khamenei, the Iranian government is strongly focusing on promoting domestic production in various areas and the mining sector as one the major pillars of the country’s economy has not been an exception.

In this regard, indigenizing the machinery and equipment needed by this industry was put atop agenda by the related bodies and organizations including IMIDRO which has recently taken over HEPCO.

In late May, IMIDRO also announced that the organization is planning on reviving 200 small mines by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).

The reason for most of the small mines’ shut down has been reported to be the lack of machinery or overhaul services by the foreign companies which were used to supply the equipment and machinery to the mines.

Heavy Equipment Production Company is an Iranian corporation that manufactures construction equipment, agricultural machinery, railroad cars, trucks, forklifts and the equipment of oil, gas, energy, metal and mining industries in Arak, HEPCO is the largest heavy equipment manufacturer in West Asia.

EF/MA