TEHRAN- The acting head of Industry, Mining, and Trade Department of Iran’s western province of South Khorasan announced that 121 mining zones in the province will be offered to the investors in the next Iranian calendar month (starts on November 21).

Abbas Jorjani said that the zones are offered for conducting exploration operation in line with implementing the instructions issued by the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade and with the follow-ups done by his department.

As announced by Iran Minerals Production and Supply Company (IMPASCO), 50 trillion rials (over $1.1 billion) worth of mining projects were handed over to the private sector in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).

According to IMPASCO, which is a subsidiary of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), last year, tenders were held for awarding 12 mining projects in which domestic investors as well as companies from China, Tajikistan, Iraq and Georgia participated.

As reported, the contribution of the private sector in the country’s mining sector is going to improve the gross domestic product (GDP) in the current Iranian calendar year which is named the year of surge in production.

Utilizing the private sector’s resources, the mining sector is going to generate more employment, production and value-added for the country.

In late May, IMIDRO Head Khodadad Gharibpour announced that IMIDRO is contributing to $1.93 billion worth of projects that are going to be implemented by the private sector.

“IMIDRO and its subsidiaries are going to implement 31 projects, worth $2.276 billion, in a variety of fields including steel, copper, gold, antimony, nepheline syenite, phosphate and also mining infrastructure in the current year”, the official said at the time.

Due to the significant role of the mining sector in the country’s non-oil exports, the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry has provisioned operational targets in the mining sector’s three major areas of exploration, extraction and processing in the current year.

According to Deputy Industry Mining, and Trade Minister Darioush Esmaili, the mining sector accounted for 25 percent of the country’s non-oil revenues in the past Iranian calendar year.

MA/MA