Sangan’s Development Requires Water & Railroad

”SIOC’s operational activities has 3 parts include mines preparation, construction of processing plants and providing infrastructures, so far we are in mines preparation phase”, during journalists’ visit to Sangan Iron Ore Complex ,Managing Director of Sangan Iron Ore Complex said.

He added that six mineral processing plants are under construction in order to produce iron ore concentrate and pellet. Preparation of Sangan mines aimed to supply feedstock of processing plants. All the plants will be operated within the next 3 years. Final production capacity of iron ore concentrate and pellet plants are 17.5 and 15 million tons respectively while there is only one concentrate plant with annual capacity production of 2.6 million tons in Sangan region, Sediqifar said.

The first Sangan’s iron ore plants with annual production capacity of 5 million tons will be operated in the current Iranian year (will end March 2017), he continued.

He expressed that SIOC is going to supply 22 percent of the feedstock required for the envisioned 55 million tons steel output.

Based on the goals set in Development Vision Plan and Comprehensive Steel Plan, annual production capacity of iron ore concentrate will raise from current 43 million tons to 80 million tons, pellets from 23 million tons will increase to 80 million tons and crude steel from 23 million tons will reach to 80 million tons, Sediqifar announced.

Operation of these processing plants will lead to annual production of 40 million tons iron ore and 130 million tons waste which increase Sangan’s activities seven times more than now, SIOC’s managing director said.

When SIOC’s development projects will be operated, they will require at least 25 million cubic meters of water to function, neither the region nor the province is capable of meeting this demand, he expressed.

The company has taken measures to counter this deficiency. The measures include developing new technologies to reduce the plant’s water consumption, and purchasing industrial wastewater from nearby cities to be used by the industrial complex after treatment, Sediqifar added.

In country’s current situation which faced with water supply challenge, using water of southern parts specially Oman Sea and transmission to different parts of the country is one of the solutions which could be used in long term, SIOC’s Managing director expressed.

Railroad Expansion

The other demand is railroad development, so companies that invest in Sangan’s railroad development will witness returns on their capital in less than two years, he stressed.

Furthermore, the plants need to be connected to nearby cities such as Torbat- e -Jam and also the country’s southern provinces. Sangan’s railroad transportation capacity is 8 million tons that only 5 million tons of these capacities are being utilized which will be increased to 31 million tons by the times SIOC’s development plans operation, Sediqifar said.