According to the International Exhibition of Iranian Stone, the mining sector is one of the most important and influential sectors, and paying attention to it and realizing its potential can advance the country's economy like a powerful driving force. The Supreme Leader of the Revolution, on May 7, in a video link with the country's manufacturing sectors, while pointing to the expected characteristics of production mutations in various economic sectors, said: "We are far behind in the mining sector and one of the sectors that needs to be considered is the sector. It's a mine. "

He stressed the need to avoid selling raw minerals, saying that one of the best alternatives to oil exports is the mining sector, noting that stone is exported from the country's mines and the products it produces. It is not acceptable to enter our country so that its added value reaches others.

The President of the Republic also said on May 6, during the ceremony of exploiting the national projects of Iran's copper industry: "I am very happy that a lot of work has been done in the 11th and 12th governments in this regard, that is, what has been discovered in the 11th and 12th governments compared to what Explored in the history of Iran, it is much, much more, that is, several times the exploration of the whole of history. This discovery, which has been made over the past seven years, shows how much work has been done in the field of exploration, and this is our first work that is very important. Different devices are working in this field.

Hojjatoleslam and Muslims Dr. Hassan Rouhani added: "However, we have not yet gone to the depths of the earth to discover the mines, and we have mainly used mines that are on the surface and we have to go to a depth of one to three kilometers, which of course we went to oil and gas." If we make oil and gas one of the ordinary mines, which we consider special mines, and we went to very deep depths, and we did not go too deep into the rest of the mines, and where the big mine is of great quality, then it is enough to go deep and go from there. Use and exploit mines.

"We have to do something to provide mines that are not being used quickly," he said.

The order of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution, on the one hand, and the government's plans to use the mining capacity, on the other, indicate the role and position that this sector can play in developing the country's economy and cutting its dependence on oil.

Mines of the new generation of economic activities

The head of the Fars Industry, Mining and Trade Organization called the mines a new generation of economic activities and said: "This sector is considered to be the center of production activities in the resistance economy."

Hamid Reza Izadi added: "Based on the characteristics of mineral geology, out of thirty-seven types of minerals identified in Fars province, twenty-three types, including limestone, marl, gypsum, marble, porcelain, refractory soil, industrial soil, Blue and rock salt, silica, quartzite, manganese, lead, zinc, chromite, barite, iron ore, copper and granite are in operation.

He continued: the variety of minerals that can be harvested, the variety of decorative and facade stones with export advantage, the existence of refractory and industrial soils, huge resources of various building materials, the discovery of dolomite reserves in the south of Fars province, the existence of iron ore potentials in East Fars and mines The metal of the province is one of the mineral capabilities of Fars.

He said: "Currently, six hundred and forty-three active mines with an investment of seven thousand two hundred and seventy five billion rials and employment of eight thousand three hundred and thirty five people and reserves equivalent to three thousand three hundred and twenty six million tons and production and extraction." There are more than 50 million tons of minerals annually in the province.

Izadi added: "Last year, 15 exploration licenses, 15 certificates of discovery and forty-two exploitation licenses were issued in the province in the mining sector."

He added: "Fars province ranks fourth in the country in terms of the number of mines and the fourth largest in the country in terms of mineral resources and the seventh in terms of mineral reserves, and is one of the provinces with the highest rate of mineral discoveries in the country."

The head of Fars Industry, Mining and Trade Organization continued: "Also, the creation of mineral industry units whose required minerals can be supplied from the province's mines, in addition to preventing the sale of raw minerals and completing the value-added production chain, will also create sustainable employment." 

Izadi called the resumption, activation and development of small-scale mines one of the main projects of the Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade and said: "In the current situation, this project is one of the strengths and hopefuls in creating sustainable employment, expanding exports, strengthening supply chains and creating Value in the mining sector and creating suitable opportunities for introducing investments related to the mining sector and clarifying and simplifying the processes of presence and participation in the country's mineral society.

Issuance of two hundred and fifty-two mining licenses in the past year

The head of the Fars Industry, Mining and Trade Organization, referring to the issuance of two hundred and fifty-two mining licenses last year, said: Two and a half million tons will be added to the province's mineral extraction capacity.

Izadi added: "Also, last year, seventy-three exploration licenses and discovery certificates were issued in the mining sector of Fars province with an operating cost of eighty-four billion rials."

He continued: "Last year, forty-seven exploitation licenses were issued in the field of mining with an investment of six hundred and ninety billion rials in this province. With the issuance of this number of exploitation licenses, three hundred and thirty-seven people have been directly employed."

He said: Fars province with the annual extraction of fifty-one million tons of minerals of a province prone to mineral resources such as marble and porcelain, refractory and industrial soil, construction plaster, dolomite, silica, lime, salt, manganese, iron And it's copper.

Izadi enumerated the number of mines licensed in Fars as six hundred and forty-eight mines and added: "About three and four tenths of a billion tons of definite reserves of these mines."

He said the export targets for Fars province's minerals include China (decorative stones), Iraq (clinker cement) and Qatar, Oman, Kenya, South Korea and Vietnam.

The head of Fars Industry, Mining and Trade Organization added: "Since last year, a study-research project of the mining sector under the strategy of mining development and mining industries of the province was prepared in cooperation with Shiraz University and in the exploration sector in the northern and northeastern exploration area. The province includes the cities of Bavanat, Eghlid, Khorrambid, Abadeh, Sarchehan and parts of Arsanjan, Dolomite zone in the southern and southwestern cities of the province, exploratory studies in Noorabad and Rostam counties, quadruple areas of Qatar and Nizar region.

Mines are the best alternative to oil

The head of the Fars Mining Engineering Organization also pointed out that mines can play a fundamental and important role in the jump in production, saying: "Considering the conditions of the global oil market and the sanctions imposed on the country in this sector, the best alternative and the most potential possibility that can replace Oil is mining.

Mohammad Hossein Sharafat added: "The orders of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution regarding the need to pay attention to the mining sector and avoid selling raw materials also show the importance of this sector and we must move in the direction of discovering new and more diverse minerals and importing existing minerals." Process the chain of circuits to prevent crude sales.

He continued: "In the mining sector, there is this talent and ability in terms of resources and expert and technical force."

The need to review legal hurdles

He said that the biggest and biggest obstacles facing the mining sector are the environment and natural resources, adding that it seems that the mining sector should be looked at with a new perspective on natural resources and the environment.

He added: "Of course, no one can deny that the preservation of natural resources and the environment is necessary, but if we want to turn the capacity of mineral resources from potential to actual, the view of the environment and natural resources to the mining sector must change."

"According to the existing laws and regulations, both the environmental complex and the natural resources complex will become a major obstacle to the development of the mine during the implementation of their own regulations, and if these rules and regulations are revised," Sharafat said. We will see a fundamental change.

Lack of high power machines

The head of Fars Mining Engineering Organization said: "Another part that hinders the growth of the mining sector is the field of equipment and machinery. We have the possibility of some products in the country on the scale of low power machines, but in the field of manufacturing high power machines." The mining sector needs them. We are in short supply.

Sharafat added: "Laws, instructions and cooperation of institutions in different sectors should be such that it is possible to enter and facilitate the entry of these machines into the country, because without these devices and machines, it will not be possible to produce on a large scale and mining on a small scale." It is not economical because it raises the cost and makes the plans uneconomical.

He added: "So in this area, too, the government definitely has plans that need to be accelerated so that the machines can be supplied more quickly and in the required amount."

He added: "Another issue is the import of spare parts that the machines in the country's mining sector need, and in this sector, there is no codified program and no control and supervision is done."

Sharafat continued: "Spare parts for the existing mining machinery in the country are offered at very high prices and without sufficient supervision, and the mining producer has to avoid problems for these production lines."

He continued: "Just as in other sectors, regulatory bodies should closely monitor the supply of goods and services and the sale of mineral products, in the field of supplying equipment and parts required by the mining sector, accurate monitoring and expertise should be avoided." Be.

The mining sector is plagued by administrative inconsistencies

An activist in the mining sector in Fars province said that this sector is caught in administrative discrepancies and said: "What we are facing today in the mining sector and the view that there is no counter in this sector in the country is in fact a kind of self-sanction."

Ali Akbar Zarei, referring to the naming of this year as the Year of Production Leap, added: "The orders of the Supreme Leader of the Revolution are a general policy that the country needs and everyone should move in this direction, but sometimes these issues remain slogans."

He continued: "The characteristic mines are the drivers of industries and suppliers of raw materials for mining industries and other mining industries, and our industries must process the minerals extracted from the mines and market the produced product in order to move us in this direction." Foster self-sufficiency.

He added: "Most of the country's mines are in deprived and underprivileged sectors, and keeping the mining sector alive will help those who really deserve help in the first place."

He added: "Despite the importance of the mining sector, there are some people in the country who are deliberately working against this sector."

The head of the Fars Mining Engineering Organization said: "Apart from international pressures and sanctions, a significant part of the mine in the country is facing problems and problems that if these obstacles are removed, the mining sector will move forward with more power, but if this trend continues." The mining sector will be more tired every day than the day before.

"We demand very simple support in the laws, in the licensing and in the implementation, and these expectations must be valued if we are to develop the mines," Sharafat said.

He added: "The mining sector can help the country a lot in these difficult conditions, but if the view of this sector does not change, we should wait for this sector to be shut down."

* IRNA