TEHRAN – Deputy head of Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) said on Monday that 147 idle small-scale mines have been put back into operation since the beginning of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20).

According to Abbas Naiemi, during the mentioned period, 64 mines have been reactivated and developed directly and 83 mines have been revived by providing the necessary infrastructure for them, IRNA reported.

The said mines have been reactivated as part of a comprehensive program for reviving idle small mines across the country.

As reported, under the framework of the mentioned program, 672 idle mines have been identified and prioritized in the current Iranian calendar year, and diagnostic procedures have been performed on 194 mines to determine the reasons for the halt in their production.

According to the official, since the beginning of the program in March 2019 up to date a total of 2800 such mines have been identified and 293 of them have been revived.

The mentioned program, which has been at the forefront of IMIDRO's missions over the past two years, is being pursued in several provinces.

Khodadad Gharibpour, the head of IMIDRO, has mentioned this plan as one of the most significant plans of “Resistance Economy”, saying that IMIDRO is strongly determined to carry out it.

Reviving the small mines not only is a major step toward materializing “Surge in Production”, which is the motto of the current Iranian calendar year, it also plays a significant role in job creation throughout the country, Gharibpour said back in June.

As reported, reviving the small mines has created 300 job opportunities in the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-June 20).

Following this program, so far various small-scale mines including chromite, manganese, hematite, and dolomite, iron ore, copper, and construction stone mines have been surveyed by monitoring and diagnosing the problems of the mines and providing solutions for resolving their issues.

EF/MA