Massoud Shariati, Bafq governor announced on June 22, 2004 that the largest zinc mill in the Middle East has gone bankrupt four years after establishment in the city of Bafq, Yazd province, Pars Investment reported from Tehran.

Shariati noted that the Bafq Zinc Mill should have received raw material from Koushk, Shahin and Mehdi-Abad mines and that the Mehdi-Abad mine failed to become operational on schedule, which created huge problems for the mill. Some 700 people used to work in the mill, whose shares mostly belong to Bank Melli Iran.

"The Iranian side and the Chinese firm, which set up the mill, have not yet reached a consensus on how to run the mill," Shariati stated, blaming the Iranian side's mismanagement and failure to supply raw materials for the closure of the huge complex. He called on the industrial officials to explain why the zinc mill has been abandoned while there are more than 4,000 unemployed people in the small city. "For more than two years now, the zinc mill's workers have been receiving layoff insurance," he said, adding that the mill's management team has changed five times in the past four years.