TEHRAN – National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICIC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) worth $4.5 billion with the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry for implementing 26 projects in the mining and mineral industries sector.

The MOU was signed on Wednesday in a ceremony attended by senior officials including the Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Alireza Razm Hosseini and NICIC Managing Director Ardeshir Sa'd-Mohammadi.

The mentioned memorandum is aimed at completing the value chain of the country's copper industry, with a focus on investment in various fields like exploration, extraction, production of copper concentrate, copper anode and cathode, and development of downstream industries.

As reported, following the implementation of the mentioned projects, the NICIC’s copper concentrate production capacity which currently stands at 1.2 million tons will be increased to 2.5 million tons, while the company’s copper cathode production will also increase to 550,000 tons from its current 280,000 tons.

In addition to cretin employment, these projects are also going to increase the value of the country’s annual copper export to $4.5 billion from its current $2.5 billion.

Back in April, Sa'd-Mohammadi had said that several major copper-related projects will go operational in the current Iranian calendar year (started on March 21) which are going to significantly increase the country’s copper concentrate output.

According to Sa’d-Mohammadi, 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.

The official had also announced the discovery of one billion tons of new copper reserves in the country.

He 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.

EF/MA

Photo: Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Alireza Razm Hosseini (R), and NICIC Managing Director Ardeshir Sa'd-Mohammadi exchanging MOU documents in Tehran on Wednesday.