A key Iranian industrial enterprise said on Tuesday that it had proposed to establish a joint venture with India’s National Aluminum Company Limited (NALCO) to produce aluminum.

The proposal has been presented to NALCO by the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation, known as IMIDRO, which is the industrial arm of the country’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade.

Amir Khorrami-Shad, IMIDRO’s planning director, has been quoted by the media as saying that the proposal has been raised in a meeting between senior officials from both sides.

Khorrami-Shad added that the joint venture between the two could benefit from several significant advantages including affordable raw material that would be provided by India as well as cheap fuel that would be provided by Iran.

He added that both companies had agreed to choose a consulting company to study the feasibility of the project.

The output from the project will be used both for supporting Iran’s domestic demand and exporting to regional markets.

NALCO is reportedly already negotiating over the construction of an aluminum smelter in Iran through an investment of at least $2 billion.

A basic agreement to the same effect has been signed between the two sides during the recent visit to Tehran by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Based on the agreement, NALCO's Indian refinery would supply the alumina for the smelter if the project were to go ahead.

Apart from the agreement for NALCO, Modi also oversaw the signing of several other key deals while in Iran including one for the development of Iran’s strategic Chabahar port.

By Press TV