TEHRAN – The managing director of the National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICIC) has said his company has it on the agenda to be placed among the world’s top 10 copper-producing companies within the next four years, IRIB reported.

Ardeshir Sa’d-Mohammadi said NICIC has defined 45 new projects to this end, of which three will be put into operation by late-May 2022 to add 350,000 tons to the country’s copper concentrate production capacity.

Mentioning the company’s new exploration operations across the country, the official noted that recently two billion tons of new copper reserves have been discovered in a region near Sarcheshmeh in Kerman Province.

He further noted that NICIC’s copper output in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22) has exceeded the total production in the previous year (ended on March 20).

“Despite extensive power outages in the summer, the National Iranian Copper Industries Company set very good records, as our production in the first seven months of the current year was 3.5 percent higher than last year's total production,” Sa’d-Mohammadi said.

We hope to have good records in production and sales by the end of the year as well, he added.

Stating that NICIC is currently in a good position, the official noted that with new discoveries, the company is on a good upward path.

NICIC carried out 101,000 meters of deep drilling to identify new copper reserves across the country in the previous Iranian calendar year. Considering the new discoveries, NICIC’s total copper reserves across the country have currently surpassed eight billion tons.

Sa’d-Mohammadi had previously put the country’s total copper reserves at 40 billion tons, saying that Iran currently has the world’s seventh-largest copper reserves, and hopefully the country will climb to sixth place in the current Iranian calendar year.

According to the official, NICIC has defined more than €2.4 billion, plus 300 trillion rials (about $7.1 billion) worth of projects to be implemented over the next four years, which will increase the company’s total copper concentrate capacity to 2.3 million tons.

He further noted that the country’s copper exports increased in the previous year despite the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the U.S. sanctions.

EF/MA