Iran’s Mining Projects on Hold Amid Investors’ Apprehension

EghtesadOnline: Iran has put on hold “almost all” of its mining agreements with foreign investors, as companies from Europe to Asia fear additional sanctions on the Persian Gulf nation’s economy, according to deputy minister of Iran’s ministry of industries, mining and trade.

News ID: ۷۷۶۲۸۴

17 May 2017

“Less than $100 million of projects are moving forward, out of the $50 billion in potential investment the government is seeking from overseas mining companies by 2022,” Mehdi Karbasian was also quoted by Bloomberg as saying in an interview in Tehran on Monday.

“Fearing they might get placed on a blacklist in the wake of the return of sanctions, the companies with whom we have made these deals have suspended almost all of the agreements and maintained a wait-and-see attitude.”

US President Donald Trump imposed new curbs on Iran’s economy after the country conducted missile tests earlier in the year and US senators have introduced a bill to further tighten restrictions, Financial Tribune reported.

Iran has more than 5,000 active mines, mostly privately owned, according to a 2013 report by the US Geological Survey.

Mining and manufacturing, led by steel and cement, account for 13% of gross domestic product, against 16% for crude oil and natural gas, the USGS said in the report.

In 2015, as international powers prepared to ease sanctions the following January, Iran was attracting interest from mining companies from Italy and France to Brazil and Australia.

“Plans were to double steel production by 2025, with German, French and Dutch delegations visiting Iran to discuss investments in steel and mining,” Karbasian said in August 2015.

Stalled projects include expansion of Hormozgan and Isfahan steel companies, which each had €400 million ($439 million) of deals with foreign partners, according to Karbasian, who is also the managing director of the state-run Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization.