Iran announces first lithium reserve in country; Projected 8.5 million tonnes

Iran’s Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade recently announced that the country has discovered its first lithium reserve, in Qahavand in Hamedan province. The reserve is believed to hold 8.4 million tons of lithium; if realized, this would rank Iran behind Chile (11 millions tons) and ahead of Australia (7.9 million tons) in terms of global lithium resources, according to USGS figures.

According to the ministry, a mine to exploit the resource, which took four years to discover, will be launched in the next two years.

Hamadan province is located in the Zagros Mountains in the Northwest of Iran. As an historical note, the city of Hamadan, the capital of the province, lay on the Silk Road. Hamadan province has known reserves of limestone, lead, iron ore, and zinc.

In a 2016 report on trends in the nonfuel minerals industry of Iran, USGS estimated that Iran held globally significant reserves of feldspar (2nd largest in the world), barite (5th largest), gypsum (5th largest), fluorspar (8th largest), and iron ore (10th largest). The Government of Iran claimed to also have significant reserves of chromium, copper, gold, manganese, phosphate rock, and zinc.