TEHRAN – Experts at a research and industrial plant in Azarshahr, East Azarbaijan Province, have managed to produce alumina from nepheline concentrate.

The project, first in its kind in the Middle East, was inaugurated in this small city located in northwest Iran by the Minister of Industries and Mines Alireza Tahmasbi. The plant uses nepheline concentrate as the raw material for aluminum production.

The project, also to be carried out in Sarab - another city in the province - is slated to annually produce 200,000 tons of aluminum, the minister said adding that the production is expected to be boosted to 500,000 tons per annum.

He put the investment required for the production of 200,000 tons of alumina per year at the Sarab Alumina Plant at around $700 million.

The minister also commented on Iran’s Fourth Five-Year Socioeconomic Development Plan’s objectives in the aluminum ingot production sector and said, aluminum production during the past 40 years had been planned for only 240,000 tons whereas, the figure is projected to increase to between 800,000 tons and one million tons per annum within the next 3.5 years.