TEHRAN – Director-general of planning at Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran (GSI) has announced the discovery of new iron ore reserves in central Iran, IRIB reported.

“Recently, in parts of central Iran, including the provinces of Isfahan, Yazd, Kerman, and Semnan, preliminary exploration operations have been carried out and good iron ore reserves have been discovered,” Reza Jadidi said.

Jadidi put the country’s current discovered iron ore reserves at approximately 3.3 billion tons, saying: “Considering that Iranian steel industries consume about 100 million tons of crude iron ore annually we have serious limitations on the amount of iron ore reserves in the country.”

According to the official, the country’s current iron ore reserves can only meet the domestic demand only for 15 years, which is not a good situation.

“This calls the need for strict planning for the exploration of new iron ore reserves in the country,” he stressed.

Earlier this month, Head of the IRON ORE ASSOCIATION OF IRAN (IROPEX) Mehrdad Akbarian said the country’s current iron ore reserves are theoretically about 2.8 billion tons, however, the real figure is expected to be much more than that.

According to Akbarian, the country’s iron ore reserves are estimated to be about five billion tons.

The official noted that, so far 500,000 tons of the country’s total iron ore reserves have been consumed and processed.

Having 81 different types of minerals, Iran is one of the top 10 mineral-rich countries across the globe. In this regard, the Iranian government has been seriously pursuing several programs for promoting the mining sector as a major contributor to the country’s economic growth.

The total proven reserves of Iran's mines are estimated at about 60 billion tons, which is expected to reach more than 100 billion tons with the implementation of the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry’s exploration programs over 500,000 square kilometers of new mineral zones.

Despite the country’s huge potential in this area, due to some issues like the lack of necessary machinery and equipment and the lack of access to financial resources and foreign investment because of the U.S. sanctions, the Iranian mining sector has been struggling to operate at its maximum capacity over the past few years.

So, the government programs for promoting this industry are mainly focused on relying on domestic sources for helping the mining sector overcome its current problems and hit its ideal targets.

EF/MA