Explosives and Diesel Shortages, Main Obstacle to Realizing 13% Mining Sector Growth
A mining expert has warned that the shortage of explosives and diesel is an obstacle to realizing 13% growth, and that the target should be adjusted to 8% to 10%.
Keyvan Jafari Tehrani, regarding the challenges of supplying production inputs in the mining sector, stated: “The explosives problem is an issue that still persists and requires fundamental and radical consideration, and the necessary arrangements must be made for importing explosives. Certainly, with the end of the war—which we hope will happen as soon as possible—this problem will also diminish, but in the current conditions and since the beginning of this year, we have seen that most of the country’s mines have simultaneously faced two fundamental problems: explosives shortage and diesel shortage.”
This mining expert, referring to the consequences of these two fundamental challenges on the mining sector’s performance indicators, stated: “It is because of these fundamental problems that we see the mining sector has not been able to achieve its set goals and has not been placed on the path toward the defined 13% growth, and at present the mining sector is lagging far behind this plan.”
Jafari Tehrani, emphasizing the necessity of revising and reviewing the projected macro targets, noted: “The matter of 13% growth in the Seventh Development Plan must certainly be subjected to new monitoring; because even if the war ends sooner and sanctions are lifted, there is no chance of achieving the figure of 13%, which is considered a very ambitious goal; rather, we will only have the chance to reach more logical and practical figures, which could be in the range of 8% to 10%; therefore, achieving figures greater than these is unattainable under current conditions.”