Memoirs of Akbar Hashemi – March 25, 1995

At half past eight in the morning, we flew to Bandar Abbas and immediately went to Rodan city with helicopters. We landed next to the stadium, the gathering place of the people. [Mr. Seyyed Alibman Mirkhalili], a member of parliament, welcomed and raised the demands of the people. Most of all, he relied on extracting Faryab mine from Kerman province and annexing it to Hormozgan province. I gave an encouraging speech to the people.

This is a prone area. It has good water and soil. They said it has more than six deep wells and palm trees, citrus fruits and other crops. I had not come here during my provincial trip and I made up for it in this trip. The main purpose of the trip is to open the Faryab ferrochrome and ferromanganese refinery.

We immediately flew to the factory. First, we went to the mine site. Engineer [Mohammed] Ali Abadizadeh, CEO explained. It is an important mine. Before the revolution, it was discovered and exploited by the Rezais. It was stagnant after the revolution, but it was reactivated in the first program. In the past, only chromite ore was exported, but now with the establishment of a refinery, a part of the mine is refined and converted into ferrochrome, which has a great added value. Each ton of stone is exported for one hundred dollars, and ferrocaram is exported for six hundred and fifty dollars per ton. In addition, it is widely consumed in domestic industries and at a price per kilo

It is sold for two hundred and sixty tomans. In the mine, we saw the open part and visited one of the mine tunnels. Mr. Ali Abadi said, so far we have 3.5 million tons of definite reserves and about 20 million tons of probable reserves. A lot of good fresh water is obtained from the mine tunnel, which is used in the factory. There are many small dams in the valley that collect seasonal rainwater.

We went to the place of the factory seven kilometers from the mine. After prayer, lunch and rest, they gave explanations in the meetings and said that they have taken technology from China and for two production units of ferrochrome, with a capacity of fifteen thousand tons and ferromanganese, with a capacity of twenty thousand tons, nineteen million foreign currency dollars and three and a half billion tomans have been spent so far, and for the expansion of the factory, by adding four more furnaces, they will multiply the capacities.

I made a fuss and removed the tablet. In development, they do all the work by themselves without the need of outsiders. We visited different departments and heard the report of [Mr. Hossein Mahluji], the Minister of Mines and Metals, and [Mr. Morteza Bank], the Governor of Kerman, in a meeting. I gave the badge of construction to engineer Aliabadi [Zadeh Tabrizi] and gave an encouraging speech on the importance of work. We returned to Kish. On the way, Mr. Seyyed Mojtaba [Abdullahi], the commander of anti-trafficking in the region, gave explanations and stated the needs.