The Iranian iron ore producers have saved more than 45 billion US-dollars for the country over the last 20 years as the import of iron ore has significantly reduced over this period.
This is equivalent to the entire cost of imported basic material required by the Iranian steel industry from 1998 to 2017.
The two iron ore mining giants, Chadormalu and Gol-e Gohar, are responsible for 52% of the iron ore produced in Iran. This has saved lots of money for domestic steel producers who do not need to import iron ore.
On average, in Iran 43% of the cost of steel production goes to procuring iron ore, reports Donyaye Eghtesad. Therefore one of the important financial relative advantages in the production of steel is the ability to use domestic iron ore.
Iran is a country rich is natural resources such as oil, gas and minerals and ranks 15th in terms of mineral resources. Reports indicate that there are 57 billion tons of potential mineral reserves in Iran, of which 37 million tons are definite. This is 7% of the total global resources.
In spite of rich mineral reserves, mines have a small share of the economy in Iran and figures show that the share of mines and mining related industries in Iran is merely 7% of the GDP.
According to Iran Centre of Statistics, 50% of the added value in the mining sector and 19.6% of employment in the mining sector is due to the mining of iron ore.
Numbers from the society of iron ore producers and exporters indicate that last year, 20.3 million tons of iron ore were exported.
Related article: Iron Ore at Iran Mercantile Exchange
