Some 90 foreign firms attending Minex 2014

A total of 250 domestic and foreign companies are participating in the Third Mines and Mining Industries Exhibition (Minex 2014) in Tehran.

Participants include 90 foreign companies from Germany, Italy, China, Russia, Australia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Belarus and Taiwan.

Speaking on the sidelines of his visit to the exhibition on Friday, Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said the mining sector’s share in gross domestic product can grow by 2 percent to reach 3 percent, IRNA reported.

He said his ministry’s main priority is to expand mining exploration activities.

The exhibition which opened on October 17 will continue until October 20.

The minister called for carrying out more exploration operations in the sector to be followed by extraction and processing of minerals.

Noting that the mining sector plays a pivotal role in the country’s production plans, Nematzadeh said foreign investments are highly welcome in the sector.

“We plan to hold tenders to hand over exploration activities to the private sector.” He said.

The minister stressed that the participation of foreign and domestic investors in mining projects will help boost the sector’s output.

“Currently, we should reduce the export of raw materials and increase the production and export of value-added products,” he said.

Since the beginning of 2014, Iran has launched a plan to explore 200,000 square kilometers of the country’s area for mineral resources, which has progressed by 30 percent.

Iran ranked among top 10 countries with rich mineral resources in the year ended March 20, 2014, the country extracted 420 million tons of minerals from 5,400 mines.