What is the Iranian rock industry in the world? What issues can the Iranian rock industry face? How can the Iranian rock industry be developed?

Iran’s rock industry is one of the greatest opportunities for entrepreneurship, job creation and economics, which unfortunately remains unclear despite the efforts made by the private and public sector.

This industry can play a decisive role in the economic equation of the country, with thousands of industrial units in the country, including mines and factories,

directly or using the products of this industry in different structures.

Iran has richly rich reserves of precious and semi-precious ornamental stones, but so far no person or institution has introduced a mark for introducing and selling these stones, and nobody has ever made any Iranian stone rocks.

While decorative stones an play a significant role in urban planning, architecture and urban furniture, the culture of using this product has not yet been created.

The oil-dependent economy and the supply of currency needs through its sale have always been the main obstacles to a comprehensive economic strategy based on all the natural resources of the country.

Among them, the amount of reserves and variety of decorative stones are very significant. Considering about 4 billion tons of known reserves, Iran is in terms of reserves and quality of decorative stones among the world’s top 12 countries.

Iran’s rocks industry is the second largest producer of rocks in the world

The increasing trend in crude production over the past years has led Iran to be the second largest producer in the world after Italy, but due to various reasons, it does not have a good position in the world market, accounting for about 12% of world exports of rocks.

Iran is weak in terms of mineral resources in terms of productivity and exploitation, but in terms of mineral resources it is among the richest countries in the world.

In Iran, there are 1300 metamorphosed rock mines, 6,000 stone plants and 2,000 related industries, such as tool dealers, vendors, automakers, and more.

The problems the stone industry faces

Raw materials – Due to the availability of rock deposits in the country, we face no serious problems, but due to the lack of scientific management and proper planning to use the full capacity of machinery,

the lack of proper machinery selection (using bulldozers instead of cranes,

excavators Mechanical, etc.), improper extraction method and unconventional waste, reduced annual production tonnage, which sometimes has difficulty supplying the raw rock used in the processing units, and ultimately leads to an increase in the cost of raw rock compared to competitors.

Raw stone is purchased individually from different mines by processing units, sometimes these mines are not from neighboring provinces, because of the high cost of transportation,

it affects the finished product price. It also does not create a logical and systematic relationship between mines and processing units and do not know the demands and expectations of each other and at a higher level of consumer market.

A small portion of the consumables in mines and processing units is provided from within and most of the countries of Italy, China and Turkey.

Technology

In mines, a combination of internal and external machinery is used where the share of capital of foreign machinery in fixed investment is much higher than the domestic machinery.

All machinery and equipment can be built inside, but in comparison with other external devices, it has a lower quality and higher price.

Due to the high cost of purchasing machinery and equipment and the lack of liquidity, the average life of machinery used in mines is high.

The burnout of machinery can increase the losses of minerals in extraction, rising cost of rock, low quality of stone and decrease of competitive power.

The technical knowledge and methods of mining in mines and stone processing units have been achieved solely through native experiences. The use of modern methods and training of the workforce can increase productivity.

The lack of use of some suitable technologies, including chain saw,

excavator and crane in mines, saw and filter press in processing units that reduce production and productivity.

The shortage of machinery and technical know-how in the production of granite stones makes up about 80 percent of the imported stones as granite.

– The weakness of underground mining know-how

– The lack of a maintenance system and failure to provide after-sales services for machinery and equipment

How can production be developed in the rock industry?

– Increase the quality of the production of the appropriate raw rock for cutting with saws instead of peaks

– Improving the quality of consumables in mines and processing units by preventing imports and producing low-quality consumables inside the country.

– Support for domestic consumables

– Promoting national standards to the standards of industrial countries and the obligation of units to comply with them

– Proper waste management in the industry by examining recycling methods in mines and processing units and supporting units for its application.

– Improvement of production lines in processing units using new machines and mechanized systems and automation, in particular the replacement of a saw with a peak and a crane and excavator instead of a bulldozer.