Iran plans $15 billion of investment to boost its copper production in the next five years, that will increase exports of the strategic metal to more than $10 billion from the current $1.7 billion, Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade Reza Fatemi-Amin says.

The country is currently producing 280,000 tonnes of copper cathode a year, which it wants to increase to over one million tonnes, he said.

�In order to achieve this goal, the program to increase production by 750,000 tonnes started this summer, which requires $15 billion of investment, he said, adding the projects�will gradually come on stream�by the Iranian year of 1406.

New explorations have started in South Khorasan province in eastern Iran and are being undertaken in other provinces.

Iran, having 1% of the world's population, has more than 6% of the world's copper reserves.

�With the discoveries made so far, we have ranked fifth in the world, and with the continuation of the exploration work, this rank will also improve,� Fatemi-Amin said.

The National Iranian Copper Industry Company (NICICO) operates the country�s three major copper mines of Sarcheshmeh, Sungun and Miduk which have combined reserves of 3.4 billion tonnes.

The Sarcheshmeh copper mine in the southeast Kerman province is the world's second largest. It holds over 826 million tonnes of proven and 1.2 billion tonnes of estimated reserves alongside substantial amounts of other minerals including molybdenum, gold, silver and rare metals.

The Sungun mine in East Azarbaijan province is Iran�s second largest copper operation with over 470 million tonnes of proven and 1 billion tonnes of potential reserves. The third major copper mine is Miduk in Kerman, that holds 170 million tonnes of proven copper reserves.

 

 

By PRESS TV�