Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 20 / Trend, N. Umid
Iran plans to establish an antimony ingot production unit with a capacity of 3 tons per day, head of the Iranian Mineral Processing Research Center (IMPRC), Hussein Asgarzadeh said, website of the IMPRC reported.
Some 24 antimony mines have been discovered in Iran with total reserves of 5,000 tons and a purity of 20 percent, he said.
Early in August, ISNA quoted chairman of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization Amir Amini as saying the country needs some 100 tons of antimony ingots annually.
Amiri went on to note that, some 500 to 1,000 tons of rock is produced from the mines each year that exported, adding that currently efforts are underway to produce ingot using a fully indigenous knowledge.
Antimony is a rare chemical element with applications in the petrochemical, electronic, aerospace and chemical industries.
The total world reserves of the antimony are some 2 million tons.