According to a report by IRNA on Tuesday, Iranian copper plants also produced 24,621 tons of copper cathode during the month to August 21, indicating a 23 percent growth compared to related figure for last year.

Production of copper concentrate in Iran surpassed 493,000 tons during the five-month period, showing a one percent growth year-on-year, added the report.

The report added that the country produced 89,000 tons of copper concentrate during the month to August 21, four percent more compared to the figure for the same period last year.

In early May, four development projects worth about $952.3 million were inaugurated in the copper sector of the southeastern Iranian province of Kerman.

President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated the projects through a videoconference.

All pertaining to Khatoonabad Copper Complex, the projects included increasing the complex’s copper smelting capacity as well as building a copper concentrate storage facility, a sulfuric acid production plant and an oxygen-supplying unit there.

The inaugural ceremony was attended by Khodadad Gharibpourt, the managing director of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO).

The completion of the first project has helped increase the complex’s copper anode production capacity by 50 percent to reach 120,000 tons. It has also caused the country’s copper smelting capacity to rise to 400,000 tons per year. This project has created 120 jobs.

Some 1.11 trillion rials (about $26.4 million) plus $118 million were invested in this project.

The second project, which was the construction of a 60,000-ton storage facility, was implemented with 158 billion rials (about $3.7 million), plus €3 million in investments. It has generated 250 jobs.

The value of investments in the third project amounted to 750 billion rials (about $17.8 million), plus €100 million. The fourth plan was implemented with investments worth 192 billion rials (about $4.5 million), plus €31 million.

Iran plans to produce 1.42 million tons of copper concentrate by March 20, 2021.

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.