BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 13. The West Azerbaijan Province, located in the northwest of Iran, received an investment of 1.12 trillion rials (about $26.7 million) for launching mines in the first 9 months of the current Iranian year (March 21 through December 21, 2023), Chairman of Industry, Mine and Trade Organization of West Azerbaijan Province Abdolhamid Sartipi said, Trend reports.
This led to the operation of 41 mines with a total annual production capacity of 1.12 million tons and the employment of 290 people, Sartipi noted.
The chairman added that the province also granted 47 licenses for exploration and discovered 24 new mining areas with 20.2 million tons of reserves.
According to him, the exploration cost was 214 billion rials (about $5.1 million).
Sartipi also mentioned that the West Azerbaijan Province currently has 513 active mines with more than 1.19 billion tons of reserves and an annual extraction potential of 18.4 million tons of minerals. The exploration activities are ongoing in 192 areas.
As reported, Iran has a total of more than 50 billion tons of mineral reserves and produces more than 400 million tons of minerals per year on average.
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