Iran's South Khorasan province has issued its first investment licence to a Spanish company, for the extraction and processing of mineral deposits, state-controlled Mehr and IRNA reported on August 20.

Any European investor committing capital to Iranian mining now does so under the threat of US secondary sanctions, made explicit by President Donald Trump's August 19 warning that countries whose businesses provide Tehran with a financial lifeline would face consequences.

Iranian officials did not name the investor, disclose the size of the commitment, or identify the deposit, adding intrigue about the party that has entered the Iranian market. The announcement comes as the Spanish reopened their diplomatic mission in Tehran in April following the first war with the US and Israel.

Morteza Zakerian, director general of economic affairs and finance for South Khorasan, said the licence brought to 12 the number of countries with investors in the province, alongside China, Afghanistan, South Africa and Germany.

Turkey, Oman and the UAE have also entered for the first time recently, he added, without providing further details on the companies working with Iran.

Approved foreign investment projects in the province have reached 64, of which 26 were authorised under the current government, a rise of 68%. Projects in operation have increased from 16 to 27.

Zakerian said the projects were financed entirely from foreign investors' own funds brought in from abroad, without drawing on the public budget, bank facilities or subsidised foreign exchange.

Provincial credits, combining local revenue and transfers from Tehran, rose from IRR29.9 trillion in the year to March 2024 to IRR67.1 trillion the following year and IRR115 trillion ($60.4mn) in the year to March 2026, close to a fourfold increase in two years.

The province recorded the lowest unemployment rate in Iran in the year to March, a position it held through the spring, he noted to reporters. Zakerian described the period as the third imposed war, the official Iranian framing for the conflict with US and Israeli forces.

The UAE, one of the province's new sources of capital, has since halted all trade and financial transactions with Iran, and Tehran has said the Strait of Hormuz will stay shut until US oil sanctions are lifted.

This is not the first time that Spanish companies have shown an interest in Iranian mining operations; as far back as 2014, the Spanish Confederation of Employers' Organisations (CEOE) announced that Spain's mining companies are willing to start joint ventures in Iran.

In a meeting with top officials from Iran's Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organisation (IMIDRO), the CEOE's international relations director, Jose Garcia Morales, said: "We can offer Iranians the technologies they might need in mining projects."

Iran holds at least 43 billion tonnes of proven mineral reserves, with some 5,422 active mines, deputy of Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran Behrouz Borna told Eghtesad News.

Iran holds 3% of the world's proven mineral reserves, with its annual mineral extraction reaching 372 million tonnes, Financial Tribune previously reported.

Iran is located on the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt, which extends along the southern margin of Eurasia. The belt holds 15% of the world's mineral reserves, and 12.5% of it lies within Iran.

The country is also one of the world's most important mineral producers and has been ranked among the 15 major mineral-rich countries. It holds some 68 types of minerals, and more than 57 billion tons of potential reserves beyond its large oil and gas reserves.

The largest reserves in Iran include coal, sand and gravel, chemical minerals, and metallic minerals such as zinc, copper, iron, uranium and lead.