Gold mine in central Iran ramps up production

A gold mine in central Isfahan produced 223 kg of the precious metal in the eight months since the start of the Iranian year in mid-March, its managing director says.

The production at Moteh gold mine was up 5 percent year on year, Alireza Talari said on Wednesday, adding output in the month of Aban which ended on Nov. 21 also rose 29% to 31 kg. 

Iran's proven gold reserves are estimated at 340 tonnes, but officials believe this figure would rise much higher with extensive prospecting.

In 2014, Iran launched the Zarshuran plant in northwest Takab, which is billed as the biggest gold processing operation in the Middle East with proven reserves of 110 tonnes.

According to officials, two gold processing plants with a combined capacity of 2.7 million tonnes per year will come on stream in South Khorasan province by the end of the current Iranian year in March 2022.

The country has about 37 billion tonnes of proven mineral reserves and 57 billion tonnes of potential reserves, worth $800 billion according to 2014 data on the mines and metal holding company IMIDRO’s website.

Iran is a rising steel power. It was ranked 10th among global producers after output rose 10.7% to 7.5 million tonnes in the first quarter of this year, according to the World Steel Association.

On Wednesday, figures released by the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade showed Iranian companies produced 35.28 million tonnes of crude steel and steel products in the eight months since March.

Crude steel output fell 3.1% to 18.6 million tonnes during the period. Steel products stood at 16.6 million tonnes, down 6.6%.

Copper and aluminum production, however, rose in the period which saw Iranian mills churn out 202,000 tonnes of copper cathodes, up 6.2%, and 360,000 tonnes of aluminum ingots, up 24.8%.

SS