Iran's Iron Ore Exports Up 53 Per Cent

Volume Up 53 Per Cent

Iran's iron ore exports rose 53 per cent in the calendar year ended March 20, 2010, the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization report.

Exports by volume were 4.79 million tons, a 53 percent rise compared to the preceding year and the value of the exports was around $297.4 million.

Last year, Iran produced 25 million tons of iron ore, 1 percent more than the year before.

Output Up At Iranian Iron Ore Mine

Target Is 1 Million Tonnes in current year

Jalal Abad iron ore mine in the southern Iranian province of Kerman, produced 965,000 tonnes of iron ore in the last Iranian year which ended on 20 March 2010. This is a rise of 13 percent over the previous year’s 852,000 tonnes.

Jalal Abad, which supplies iron ore to both local and international steel mills has iron ore reserves of over 200 million tonnes and is targeting an output of 1 million tonnes for the current Iranian year

Iran Opens Iron Ore Pellet Factory

Plant Claimed To Be Largest In Middle East

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has opened the Middle East’s largest iron ore pellet manufacturing factory.

The Gol Gohar factory, located 60km from Sirjan in Iran’s south-eastern province of Kerman, was opened in a ceremony on Saturday.

The plant is capable of producing 2.0 to 2.5 million tonnes of steel in a year.

Concentrate Output Up 15 Per Cent At Iran Central Iron Ore

Figures released by the Iran Central Iron Ore Company say that it has produced 1.62 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate in the 10 months from 21 March 2009 to 20 January 2010, a rise of 15 percent year on year.

The company produced 4.35 million tonnes of iron ore of which 1.25 million tonnes were exported, an increase of 16 per cent.

Jalal Abad Production Up By 22 Per Cent

Iran's Jalal Abad iron ore mine produced about 700,000 metric tons of iron ore in the first nine months of the current Iranian year (started March 21, 2009), with an increase of 22 percent compared with 572,000 mt in the corresponding period of the last Iranian year, according to the Iranian Mining and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO).

The Jalal Abad iron ore mine, located close to Zaran city in the southeastern Iranian province of Kerman, has iron ore reserves estimated at over 220 million metric tons.

Source: Steel Orbis

Chadormalo Increases Iron Ore Concentrate Production

Chadormalo iron ore concentrate production increased 9 percent during the period from the beginning of this year by the end of the 8th month of this year comparing to production plans.

According to the Public Relations of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), 5,619,771 tons of iron ore concentrate has been produced by Chadormalo Mineral and Industrial Complex during the said period while the predicted weight was 5,147,000 tons.

674,081 tons of iron ore concentrate has been produced in the 8th month of this year by this complex which showed some 6 percent (636,000 tons) increase comparing to the production plans.

More over more than 930,000 tons of pellet and some 752,000 tons of granule iron ore have been produced in Chadormalo Mineral and Industrial Complex during the first 8 months of this year.

According to this report the produced pellet of the complex in the 8th month reached to more than 200,000 tons and the produced granule iron ore of the complex reached to some 96,000 tons.

Source: ME Steel

Iran Copper Exports Up 60 Per Cent

The National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICICO) announced that in the first eight months period of the Iranian calendar year (ending November 21) exports of copper from Iran reached 315,706 tons.

The Mehr News Agency reported that this amount of copper was sold for $688.2 million.

In terms of weight, statistics show a 60 percent increase compared to the same period the year before, and in value it is 15 percent more.

Copper excavation in this period by NICICO reached 62 million tons which shows one percent increase in comparison to the previous year.

Global copper prices have had an impressive rally in 2009, benefitting from a rebound in the world economy and strong growth in China, according to dailyfutures.com.

On November 23, 2009, the International Copper Study Group’s (ICSG) preliminary data showed that world copper production fell short of refined usage by 32,000 tons in the first eight months of 2009, compared to a deficit of 117,000 tons the previous year.

So far in 2009, the world refined production is down 1 percent, while refined usage is down 2 percent.

In 2008, the world refined production exceeded consumption by 225,000 tons.

On October 8, 2009, the ICSG predicted that copper will show a world production surplus of 368,000 tons in 2009 and 539,000 tons in 2010. That is up from their April estimate of a 345,000 ton surplus in 2009 and a 400,000 ton surplus in 2010

Source: Tehran Times

Iran Considers Buying Ukrainian Coking Coal

The Ministry of Industrial Policy of Ukraine has announced following the meeting of Mr Serhiy Hryschenko Ukraine's deputy minister for industrial policy with Mr Khalil Rahmani MD of FITCO that Iran based Fakoor International Tehran Engineering Company is examining the possibility of purchasing Ukrainian coking coal.

The Ukrainian side noted that cooperation between the countries in this area is possible if FITCO revises its demands in relation to coking coal characteristics, bringing them closer to Ukrainian standards.

In January to November this year, Ukraine registered 5.9% decrease YoY in its coking coal output to 23.4 million tonne. In 2008, Ukraine's output of coking coal decreased by 6.2% YoY to 26.642 million tonne.

Source: Steel Guru

Slight Rise In Iran Iron Ore Production

Iran’s iron ore production reached 12,754,331 tons during the first half of this year which a 1 pct increase over 2008.


According to the Public Relations of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), the iron ore production breakdown was as follows:

4,000,771 tons were produced by iron ore unit of Chadormalo,
3,644,000 tons were produced by Golgohar,
2,723,000 tons were produced by Markazi Iron Ore and
1,616,000 tons were produced by other units.


Iron ore exports stood at 1,982,515 tons, showing an increase of 9 percent YoY, with a value of $116,256,000 during the first six months of this year.

Iron ore exploitation totalled 15,438,000 tons during the same period.


According to thereport, in the 6th month of this year, iron ore production and exploitation reached 2,303,639 tons and 2,255,095 tons respectively.

Source: ME Steel

Iran Offers Anthracite To Ukrainian And Indian Buyers

Iran is offering anthracite coal to Ukrainian and Indian buyers for the first time due to a fall in demand domestically, traders said.

Until now Iran has not exported its high energy content, low volatility anthracite but used it internally in steel production, they said. “We have been offered Iranian material. It’s anthracite with a high calorific value but it has met coal properties so could be used for steel. But for India it doesn’t make economic sense,” one Indian trader said.

Ukrainian steel mills are more keen on the Iranian material because the Russian coking coal on which they partly depend has risen sharply in price and is in tight supply, due to the recovery in Russia’s own steel output.

Source: The Peninsula, Qatar

Pakistan To Import Iranian Iron Ore

The Moj News Agency has reported that Iran has agreed to sell iron ore to Pakistan Steel Mill at a price 12% percent than the price at which Pakistan is importing the ore from India.

PSM has signed a MoU with Iranian officials and a contract will soon be signed for importing Iron ore during July and August.

As per report, a Pakistani delegation has already visited Iran to assess the suitability of iron ore for use at Pakistan Steel, which estimates that it will import 185,000 tonnes per year of Iranian iron ore.

The use of Iranian ore has been under discussion for 10 years, but no previous management has made a final decision.

Source: Steel Guru

Iranian Iron Ore Miner Announces Steep Production Rise

It is reported that the Iranian iron ore miner, Chador Malu, produced 10.1 million tonne of iron ore concentrate, fines and lumps in the last Iranian year 2008-2009, up by 33.2% compared with the previous year.

Mr Mahmoud Noorian MD of Chador Malu Mining and Industrial Company said that CMIC exploited 15.8 million tonnes of iron ore in the last Iranian year, showing an increase of 50% as compared with the previous year.

Chador Malu holds a deposit of about 400 million tonnes of iron ore of which 320 million tonnes is extractable. CMIC operates the mine at Chador Malu as an open-cast pit, with an annual production capacity of 12 million tonnes. This is part-processed on-site to produce up to 7.1 million tonnes per year of iron ore concentrate. CMIC also produces up to 1 million tonnes of crushed high grade iron ore per year for domestic blast furnaces and for export.

CMIC is continuing its development at Chador Malu. The initial three lines at the beneficiation plant built by Japan’s Kobe Steel in 2006 have already been supplemented with a fourth, which was inaugurated by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in February 2009. The construction of a fifth line was expected to begin in the spring. Kobe Steel was also commissioned last year to supply a 3.4 million tonne per year palletising plant.

Further expansion is clearly on the agenda for CMIC as the private sector takes a greater role in the Iranian mining sector and as the government seeks to sustain the growth of national steel output. Once the plant has five beneficiation lines, it will have an annual production capacity of 8 million tonnes of concentrate.

Source: SteelOrbis, Steel Guru

Iran Commences Ferroalloy Production

The managing director of the Iranian Mineral Production and Supplying Company (IMPASCO) said on Saturday that domestic experts have now acquired the know-how to produce various kinds of ferroalloys and that Iran will soon become a Middle Eastern ferroalloy production hub.

According to IRINN, Ardeshir Saad-Mohammadi added that Iran is now producing ferromolybdenum, ferrosilicon, ferrochromium, and ferrotitanium.

“Once we acquire the technology for producing ferrovanadium, Iran will become the hub of producing ferroalloys in the Middle East,” he noted.

Source: Tehran Times

Binani Zinc To Acquire Mines In Iran, Australia

Binani Zinc, India's second-largest zinc producer, is planning to acquire mines in Iran and Australia to feed its smelter in the southern Indian state of Kerala, according to a senior executive.

"We need a dedicated source of zinc concentrate as right now we are dependent on imports for our raw material. Once we have our mines in place, we can be immune to sharp fluctuations in prices," said the unidentified executive.

The company is looking to invest around INR2 billion to acquire the mines.