Iran extracted 1.68 million tons of coal in 2016, an increase on previous years, thanks to an easing of international sanctions.
The dispatches by the world's largest coal miner rose by 9.6 per cent to 248.9 MT in the April-October period of this fiscal.
More than 50 miners were trapped after a huge explosion in a coal mine in northern Iran on Wednesday, and some were feared to have died, state media reported.
The reports said more than a dozen injured people had been transferred to hospital after the blast at 12:45 p.m. local time in the Zemestanyurt coal mine in Golestan province.
State news agency IRNA quoted a local official as saying some of the trapped miners may have died in the explosion. A rescue operation was under way.
Iran extracted 1.68 million tons of coal in 2016, an increase on previous years, thanks to an easing of international sanctions. It exports only a fraction of the coal and uses most of it in domestic steel production.
( Source : reuters )
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