SEMNAN Over 104,470 tons of minerals were exported abroad from Semnan province in the third quarter of the current Iranian year (started March 21, 1998), Director General for Provincial Mines and Metals Department Mohammad Reza Mesforoush said on Tuesday. Speaking to IRNA, he said that the exported minerals earned the country $5,419,000. The items exported consisted of salt, gypsum, china stone, ferrosilicon and sodium sulfate which were shipped to Germany, Japan, Italy, India, Pakistan, Qatar, Kazakstan and the Persian Gulf littoral states, he said.

There are 185 active mines in the province which possess 29 different minerals. The volume of the proven mineral deposits of the province is estimated to be four billion tons. (IRNA)