Gold in Iran

Roman Ghirshman mentions in the book "Iran from the beginning to Islam" that gold was mined in the Medes era and around the modern city of Hamadan. A large amount of copper, iron, gold, silver, lead and arsenic have been found in the mountains chosen by the Medes to live, which shows the ancient history of gold in Iran. This statement was quoted by Will Durant in the book Orient of Civilization. A book that reviews the history of civilization in an attractive way and has sold millions of copies in the world.

Strabo, as one of the Greek geographers, also mentions that civilizations were formed in ancient Iran that were based on minerals and rare metals. The incident that has caused Iran to be full of all kinds of treasures today. In the year 455 to 531 AH, various products such as gold, silver, pearls, glass, iron, copper, mercury, coral and amber were found in the city of Tisfon, the capital of the Sassanids. Archaeologists believe that gold has been prevalent in Iran since the third millennium BC.
Throughout history, many gold and silver mines have been discovered in Iran. Shah Abbas Safavi also prevented this work due to the fact that the expenses of mining were more than its income.

Currently, gold discoveries are being made in most of the country's provinces, and the statistics of the country's geological and mineral exploration organization show that the country's definite and probable gold reserves are around 340 tons. East Azarbaijan, West Azarbaijan, Kurdistan, Sistan-Baluchistan, Khorasan-Razavi, Isfahan, Central and Hamadan are among the provinces that have good conditions in terms of gold mines, and this is while more than 50 districts and mining areas have been identified in the country. Kurdistan province has been nicknamed "Iran's Paradise of Mines" in terms of having precious mines, "Zarshuran" gold mine in West Azerbaijan is the largest active gold mining mine, the potential reserve of this mine is 100 million tons with an average grade of 5 ppm. According to the issued discovery certificate, Madafti mine has a definite reserve of gold ore of 24,463,000 tons (average grade of 1.06 grams of gold), a probable reserve of 48,926,000 and a total of definite and probable reserve of 73,389,000 tons of gold ore. Also, the definite reserve of copper ore is 598,000 tons (average grade 49.%) and the probable reserve is 1,691,000 tons of the largest gold mines in the country. Among other important mines, we can mention Aq Dareh gold mine, Qalqeleh gold mine, Mote gold mine, Sarigoni gold mine and Zarmehar gold mine.