What are Iron Ore Pellets?
Pellets are small balls of iron ore that are used in the steel production. They are made with technology that uses the powder that is generated during the ore extraction process, once considered waste.
What Are Their Uses?
They are used in the production of steel which is in turn used in the construction of bridges, cars, planes, bicycles, household appliances and so on.
Mining Boost in Iran
Based on the data released by Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization, 10 large iron ore concentrate producers of the country have produced about twenty-one million tons of the product in the 5-month period of this year, while the figure was 20.373 million tons in the same time span of the past year.
The production of this ore concentrate in Iran during the previous Iranian calendar year 1399 reached 49.714 million tons, recording 5% rise compared to the last year. As the Industry says, Mining and Trade Ministry data, of the mentioned figure 3.533 million tons were produced in the last month of the previous year (February 19-March 20). As reported, the country’s major iron ore concentrate producers had managed to produce about 47.306 million tons of the mentioned product in the Iranian calendar year 1398.
Alumina powder, molybdenum, lead products, titanium products, chromium, granulated iron ore, and iron ore concentrate were other products exported from the country’s mining and mineral industries in the first five months of the current fiscal year. The mining industry registered a $4.271 billion positive trade balance in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), based on the Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry data.
In an attempt to reduce the exports of unprocessed minerals, creating more value-added and meeting the requirements of domestic producers for the raw materials, Iran has levied a 25-percent duty on the exports of raw minerals such as iron ore since September 2019. The duty is meant to encourage the production of more processed minerals like pellets and concentrate instead of selling the raw minerals.
Sources: Tehran Times & Vale.com
