Foreign Firms Sign Contract to Invest in Iran’s Mining Sector

Mahdi Karbasian, head of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation (IMIDRO), told the Tasnim News Agency on Saturday that his organization has held several meetings with mining industry officials from Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Australia and Oman over the past months.

He also added that IMIDRO has inked an MoU with Australian and Omani companies to establish a joint company to work on Iran’s lead and zinc mines.

“We predict that we would be able to prepare the ground for investment with the foreign companies more speedily in the near future,” Karbasian said.

According to international figures, Iran stands among the top 15 mineral rich countries in the world and ranks first in the Middle East.

So far many foreign companies in the field of mining equipment and machineries, exploration, extracting, processing and metallurgical industries have shown interest to enter Iran’s mineral market.

The country holds more than seven percent of the total mineral reserves of the globe. It lies on 37 billion tons of proven reserves and holds more than 57 billion tons of potential reserves of some 68 types of minerals, including chrome, coal, copper, gold, iron, lead, tin and zinc.

Iran with roughly one percent of the world population owns more than 7 percent of the total global mineral reserves, a research report has said.

According to the report issued earlier this year by the Iranian Parliament’s Research Center issued earlier this year, Iran ranks 1st in the world in terms of zinc resources, 2nd in copper resources, 9th in iron mines, 10th in uranium mines and 11th in lead mines.

The most important mines in Iran include zinc, copper, iron, uranium and lead. Other mines include coal, chemical minerals, salt, sand and gravel.