Page 58 - IRANRptDec21

Iran reports gains in aluminium ingot production and steel ingot exports
Iran’s iron ore discoveries ‘grow by billion tonnes in six years’
production of high-purity copper and copper alloy products.
Iran’s copper anode production volume amounted to 208,509 tonnes in the assessed seven-month period, up 2% y/y, the data also showed.
Copper concentrate production was up 1% to 712,685 tonnes.
The total number of copper mines in the Islamic Republic is 225, with 148 of them active. The mines have a production capacity of 100mn tonnes per year, according to official estimates.
Major aluminium production firms in the country produced 260,679 tonnes of aluminium ingots in the first half of the current Persian calendar year (March 21 to September 21), up 23% y/y, government data showed. Iran Alumina Company, Al-Mahdi Aluminum Production Co, IRALCO and SALCO produced the output.
The steel ingots industry, meanwhile, saw exports move up 36% y/y in the Persian first half to 3.495mn tonnes. The ingot types exported were slab, billet and bloom.
Previously released statistics showed that Iran’s major steel producers managed to produce more than 9.901mn tonnes of steel ingots in the first half, down 12% y/y.
Iran is presently the 10th largest steelmaker in the world, with World Steel Association (WSA) data showing crude steel production in the country expanded to 17.8mn tonnes during January-July, marking growth of 9.9% y/y. Other state data showed Iran’s major sponge iron manufacturers produced 14,527,920 tonnes of sponge iron in the Persian first half, showing a decline of 6% y/y.
Iran’s mining reserves are known to include 81 types of minerals. The reserves have been officially estimated as totalling around 60bn tonnes.
Around one billion tonnes of additional iron ore reserves have been identified in Iran over the past six years, according to the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (Imidro), as reported by Tehran’s Financial Tribune.
Total iron ore reserves reportedly stand at 2.74bn tonnes.
The newspaper report added that Imidro said explorations for more reserves were currently under way in 30 provinces, across 107 zones spread over 660,000 square kilometres.
9.1.12 Renewable energy sector news
Iranian ‘manufacturers to invest nearly $7bn to build power plants adding 10 GW to grid’
Iranian manufacturers are to invest nearly $7bn over the next three years to build power plants to respond to their growing electricity needs, PressTV has reported.
The investment would add around 10 GW to Iran’s current electricity generation capacity of 88 GW, a senior official in Iran’s industry ministry (MIMT) was cited as saying. Seyyed Mehdi Niazi, who serves as deputy minister for planning and projects at MIMT, was reported as adding that the plants would start supplying power to the national grid by 2024.
MIMT and the energy ministry reportedly signed a document to finalise the investment project. No reference was made by the news report to where the financing for the project would come from.
Homayoun Haeri, a deputy energy minister, was quoted as saying that manufacturing accounts for nearly 37% of total electricity demand in Iran, with an estimated consumption of 100 megawatt hours reported in the previous Persian calendar year (ended March 20).
58 IRAN Country Report December 2021 www.intellinews.com