According to the International Iranian Stone Exhibition, Ardeshir Saad Mohammadi stated in today's press conference at the Ministry of Industry: "We have identified all the blocked areas in different provinces and its statistics are clear separately." In the first stage, we have nothing to do with the areas that belong to people and environmental problems, etc., that prevent them from working. But we have identified the areas that are blocked and do not work and will be given to the bidders through auctions.

He added: "We replaced the auction because there is no problem for people to attend through cyberspace." Meetings related to the implementation of this plan were supposed to be held before Eid, but due to the fact that in each province, two members of parliament are present in the provincial mining councils, and there are 64 representatives in these councils, and now the parliament is reviewing the budget. The implementation of this plan was postponed to the second half of April, after which the meetings will be held through auctions.

He continued: "The first and second floor mines were blocked. In last week's meeting of the Supreme Council of Mines, we had a resolution that the mines should be vacated according to one and two."

Referring to the machinery and equipment stored in the customs, the Deputy Minister of Mines of the Ministry of Industry said: "There are machines in the customs that were registered but were not cleared due to currency problems." This is being done today so that the minister can get permission to release these goods. Foreign exchange importers have provided these machines themselves and these machines are not made domestically.

He added: "It is said that we will have 55 million tons of steel production this year, so we need to increase our iron ore in the next few years, and this requires machinery, but in the case of machinery that is produced domestically, it will not be allowed."

Saad Mohammadi pointed out: We have 6259 active mining licenses and 3990 inactive mines that may be inactive due to environmental issues but are not stagnant. We have 1197 mining licenses and 2340 stagnant mines, for which studies are underway to determine the cause of their condition. This year, 309 new licenses have been issued by the end of September.

Emphasizing that mineral behavior and attitudes towards this field must change, he stated: We need a change in mineral behavior to grow in this field. We need 160 million tons of minerals, new technologies, specialists and equipment, all of which will reduce costs. We must have a more serious plan to increase the position of the mine in added value and increase metal production. We also need to increase production. These days, the market is struggling with supply and demand, production must be in a way to increase our share of the international market so that we can have currency and increase quality and supply the domestic market. Improving production, employment, investment, prosperity of mines in deprivation makes it necessary for us to improve in the mining sector.

The Deputy Minister of Mines of the Ministry of Industry stated: out of 31 million tons of steel produced in the country, 20 to 21 million tons are ingots and the rest are slabs, which are turned into sheets and are used in industries. There is a demand for 12 million tons of ingots in the country, with this amount of production, is it right to stop exports? The versions we have for slabs and ingots are different from each other. Reducing the production of ingots does not cure the pain of the consumer. We have our own export markets for ingots, but there is a legal vacuum in this area that the parliament must address. In the case of sheets less than 5 mm thick, for which there is a high demand, imports can be exempted and the parliament must take care of them.

Asked whether international restrictions would allow for technology development, Saad Mohammadi said: "In Australia in 2017, 8 million meters of drilling was done to explore new mineral potentials. In Iran, since 1340, when systematic explorations were formed until today, only 6 million and 800 thousand meters of exploratory drilling has been done, which means that we have not made any special investment in this field and we must look at this field with a new look. These topics should be injected into universities and taught to older people as well. For example, safety training is mandatory everywhere in the world, but in Iran it is only an optional unit, so changing the way we look at it is a realistic need. In addition, 15 new drilling rigs are currently to be purchased at the copper complex. Buying software in this area is also not a complicated task.

He added: 1164 units in the country are requesting to buy sheets. We designed a system for anyone who requests a sheet to register. The capacity of the factories to consume 14 million tons of sheets has been identified, but we can also produce up to 30 million tons. The survey found that 247 steel sheet applicants had no operations in the past year to give them sheets. We will try to solve the problem soon that small companies in the stock market face the challenge of buying sheets because large companies buy in large tonnages.

Referring to the field of exports, the Deputy Minister of Mines of the Ministry of Industry reminded: "This year, we exported 5 million tons of steel ingots, which was more than last year." We need to connect with the outside world in order to provide the required currency. According to the plan, revenues in the copper sector should double in the next four years. 30 new factories will be opened next year. Considering that the per capita consumption of steel in the country is about 200 kg, even if this per capita increases to 300 kg and the population reaches 90 million people, our production is still higher and we will need to export.

In response to a question about cement, Saad Mohammadi stated: The cement production capacity in the country is 87 million tons per year. This year, the amount of cement production was 7 million tons, so the amount of cement production capacity is more than our production, but we have problems in the distribution system. In general, associations should be given more value in solving these types of problems. We think that cement should reach the consumer cheaper.

He continued: in the iron ore sector, we have optimistic up to 20 years and pessimistic up to 14 years. The average world reserve in this case is up to 75 years so we need to explore. Fortunately, we have found a very large mine in the copper sector with a capacity of one billion tons.

In response to a question about the amount of foreign investment in the mining sector, the Deputy Minister of Mines said: "It is better not to address this issue because it may cause problems, but in the case of domestic investment, I think there is no money problem in the country, but confidence building." It's difficult. If this money is directed and if people trust investment, liquidity can be directed in the country to help both the growth of industries and the reduction of inflation.

* ILNA