“For the first time in the history of the country’s copper industry the sales of NICICO have outpaced the amount of supply,” said Ardeshir Sa’admohammadi on Sunday, Press TV reported.

The comments come amid an unprecedented boom in Iran’s metals and mining sector as the country seeks to diversify the economy away from oil.

Unlike oil sales which have stumbled due to US sanctions, Iran’s trade of metals has been spared of a series of similar bans enacted since May this year. That has been largely due to the fact that the United States has been unable to spot the original source of the cargoes exported from Iran via third countries.

Sa’admohammadi said another reason for Iran’s booming copper exports is a surging demand in the international markets as the precious metal is being increasingly used in industries that are gearing toward electrification.

Reports earlier this year suggested Iran was making huge investments for development of the copper industries located northwest of the country where the NICICO seeks easier access to the markets in Turkey and in Europe.

However, a bulk of the copper exports from Iran is still supplied through a traditional hub of mines and smelters located in Kerman, in the southeast of the country.

The NICICO chief said that more than €310 million had been spent on a massive copper production site that will come on line within the next few months. He said the project, located in an area some 80 kilometers to the west of Kerman, includes a smelter, an oxygen facility, an acid production unit and a warehouse.

 

IRNA said in a report that more than $3 billion will be invested in various Iran copper industry projects across the country in the next five years, allowing the country to have a better share of an international market that is facing a surging demand for the precious metal.

The report quoted the head of IMIDRO, Iran’s largest metals and mining sector group, as saying that Iran is aiming to increase both the output and the resource discovery activity in the copper industry.

Khodadad Gharibpour said more than $120 million was spent on a major project finished earlier this year to produce 610,000 tons of sulfuric acid, a key ingredient, and by-product in copper production, each year.

Gharibpour said activity was surging at three main copper hubs in southeastern and northwestern Iran.

Head of National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICICO) also said that information from main production and distribution sites in Iran’s copper industry will soon be incorporated into a centralized system to allow the government and investors to have a transparent view of the situation in smelters, mines, refineries, and storage houses.

Ardeshir Sa’d-Mohammadi said the integrated system will be ready for use until March next year, enabling the NICICO to better introduce opportunities for investment in the copper sector to investors inside and outside of Iran.

Iran’s metals sector has witnessed a rapid expansion over the past two years as the government seeks to offset the impacts of a series of American sanctions on revenues that were once derived from oil.

The United States has targeted Iran’s trade of metals with a series of bans since May this year although experts believe the sanctions will fail to affect the current boom in production and exports of various metals from the country.