Mr Ardeshir Saad Mohammadi MD of the National Iranian Copper Industries Company has announced that by the implementation of the current development plans, Iran’s copper production will increase 3.5 fold.

Mr Ardeshir Saad Mohammadi said that “Currently, 40 development plans for copper production with a value of USD 7.35 billion are underway across the country and through the implementation of these projects Iran’s annual production capacity of copper will rise from the current 200,000 tonnes to 700,000 tonnes showing 3.5 fold increase.”

He stated that Iran currently has the world’s 9th largest reserves of copper and expressed hope that the country would rise two places to seventh place by the end of the current year. 2 years ago, Iran stood in 13th place but due to the discovery of new copper deposits rose to 9th last year.

He went on to say that Iran currently has 32.5 million tonnes of copper reserves but this figure will increase in the coming months.

Mr Mehdi Ghazanfari Industry, Mines and Trade Minister of Iran announced at the World Copper Congress in Tehran last month that “Iran's copper production which is already about 200,000 tonnes per year will rise to 700,000 tonnes per year by doing an investment of about IRR 80 trillion while the export value of copper will rise from USD 1.3 billion to USD 4.5 billion by March 2016.”

Iran possesses Asia’s second largest copper deposits which comprise 25.3% of Asian reserves and around 6% of global reserves. Based on recent surveys, some parts of Iranian mine deposits are located on the world copper belt, stretching from south eastern to northwestern and Azerbaijan district. The world copper deposits have been estimated at 57000 million tons, except for China and the former Soviet Union.

(Sourced from www.tehrantimes.com)