Tehran Times - Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) will put projects worth $4.5 billion into operation by the end of current Iranian calendar year (March 19, 2020), IRIB reported quoting the head of organization as announcing on Monday.

As reported by the Public Relations Department of IMIDRO, Khodadad Gharibpour made the announcement after a meeting with directors of large mining companies, contractors, as well as deputies of the organization on investigating and reviewing this year’s projects, and said that after a number of meetings and reviewing the projects to be implemented this year, the number and worth of projects were decided to be increased.

IMIDRO had previously announced that projects worth nearly $3.5 billion will be put into operation by the end of the current Iranian calendar year.

On July 18, IMIDRO’s Deputy and Executive Advisor Abbas Naiemi said with these projects going operational up to 50,000 new job opportunities will be created across the country.

Boosting production, creating jobs, providing infrastructure and making joint venture with the private sector are the main pivots of IMIDRO’s plans.

Given the policies of IMIDRO, planning for stable development of the chain of products, taking the most benefits of the private sector’s capabilities, cooperation with the guilds and associations, reducing the risk of investment making, and indigenization of technology will be taken into account once implementing the mentioned projects.

Meanwhile, Gharibpour has recently stressed that his organization has accomplishing semi-finished projects as its top priority.

The official also said in mid-June that IMIDRO was planning to establish a consortium in order to accelerate exploration projects in the mining sector.

He said, “The consortium is going to help us in areas like exploration and identification of new mines and minerals”.

According to the IMIDRO head, based on the mining potentials and research and academic capabilities of the country’s provinces, 10 mining regions have been defined in order to manage projects and also utilize the country’s academic potentials in this industry.

Gharibpour noted that in the framework of the country’s Sixth National Five-Year Development Plan (2016-2021), efficiency, productivity and maximum utilization of the capacities of the country’s mining industry have been given great importance and so should be considered in every step from exploration up to the production processes.

“In all areas including human resources, this [efficiency] should be taken into account. For example, we are far behind in employee education in the coal sector. Many of the work-related accidents in this sector are due to the lack of education that is why efficiency and productivity is a priority in all the IMIDRO agreements,” he said.

In late May, Gharibpour had said that the country’s mining sector currently requires 18 billion euros of investment.

“The mining sector is one of the country’s most profitable areas for investment so that 30 percent of the profits in the capital market is pertained to the mining and mineral sector,” he said.

Integrated policies to nullify sanctions

During the Monday meeting on this year’s projects, IMIDRO head also underlined the organizations’ integrated polices for nullifying the sanctions.

He said all subsidiaries of IMIDRO are moving in a coordinated path with their policies integrated toward removing the barriers in the way of implementing the projects.

Gharibpour further referred to the emphasis put by President Rouhani on implementation of the projects and said Industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Rahmani has also ordered that these projects will be launched based on a monthly schedule by the yearend.

In an attempt to [as the U.S. president Trump put it] “choke off the country’s largest non-petroleum related sources of export revenue", Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran's metals and minerals sectors in early May.

In a press conference on June 8, deputy industry, mining and trade minister said the ministry has taken necessary measures to maintain the country’s metal exports despite U.S. sanctions.

“We have established a special working group in the ministry which is closely assessing the situation and making necessary arrangements to mitigate the impact of U.S. sanctions,” Jafar Sarqini told the Tehran Times in the press conference.

The official noted that it is expected for the exports from the country’s mining sector to, at least, reach the last year’s $8.5 billion by the end of the current Iranian calendar year.

And on July 1, IMIDRO head said that the export markets of Iran’s minerals have been preserved despite the sanctions imposed by the U.S.

Making the remarks on the sidelines of a ceremony to celebrate the National Day of Industry and Mine, the official said, “As compared with the other economic sectors the mining sector’s reliance on foreign sources is less, it could preserve its export markets despite all pressures from the sanctions.”