The director-general of planning at Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran (GSI) has announced the discovery of new iron ore reserves in central Iran.
''Recently, in parts of central Iran, including the provinces of Isfahan, Yazd, Kerman, and Semnan, preliminary exploration operations have been carried out and good iron ore reserves have been discovered.''
Reza Jadidi, director-general of planning at Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran
“Recently, in parts of central Iran, including the provinces of Isfahan, Yazd, Kerman, and Semnan, preliminary exploration operations have been carried out and good iron ore reserves have been discovered,” Reza Jadidi said.
Jadidi put the country’s current discovered iron ore reserves at approximately 3.3 billion tons, saying: “Considering that Iranian steel industries consume about 100Mt of crude iron ore annually we have serious limitations on the amount of iron ore reserves in the country.”
According to Jadidi, the country’s current iron ore reserves can only meet the domestic demand only for another 15 years, which requires strict planning for the exploration of new iron ore reserves in the country.
The official noted that, so far 500kt of the country’s total iron ore reserves have been consumed and processed. The total proven reserves of Iran’s mines are estimated at about 60 billion tons, which is expected to reach more than 100 billion tons with the implementation of the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry’s exploration programs over 500,000 square kilometers of new mineral zones.