(Minews) - Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, said it is expected that by the middle of the next year (2015-2016), the required information on the investment in mine and mining industries will be put at the disposal of those interested thus ground will be prepared for a leap growth in this sector.
Replying to a question by IRNA, he said leap growth in mine and mining industries requires convergence of all other sectors such as coordinated measures by the Geological and Mining Exploration Organization and the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO).
The minister noted that currently foreign investors are present in Kurdestan, Yazd and Kerman provinces and with the improvement of international conditions trend of activities in mine and mining industries will improve as well.
He referred to signing of a contract for transfer of technology for manufacture of heavy mining machinery as another plan made in this sector and noted that Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade is seeking to import some items in addition to the manufacture of required machinery.
He expressed the hope that by the end of the next year the chain of steel production in the country will have got out of the present status and within the frameworks of 2025 vision plan projects will make the required progress.
According to the mentioned plan, steel production capacity is expected to reach 55 million tons while production capacity of iron concentrates will reach 66 million tons from the present 24 million tons and pelletizing capacity from 21 to 82 million tons.
At the end of 2014, the World Steel Association ranked Iran as the 14th major steel manufacturer of the world and the first in the Middle East region with the manufacture of 16.331 million tons of raw steel, showing an increase of 5.9 percent over the previous year.
