Ranking of Iran Minerals using Analytical Hierarchy Process

Mineral Resources which can be regarded as a best potential opportunity to sustainable development of the country. Consequently appropriate investment in exploitation of these reserves can achieve high value added to the most industries. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize the priority of minerals for future investments. In this paper, the Analytical Hierarchy Process, in which a complex problem is modeled in a hierarchical structure showing the relationships of the goal, objectives (criteria) and alternatives, is used to recognize high priority 33 minerals for future investment with regards to the 6 criteria and 29 sub-criteria. For this purpose, on the bases of interview with mineral sector experts weights of criteria are calculated and then the piority of each mineral is determined for investments. The results show that copper, Iron, Phosphate, lead and zinc, coal, gold have high priority for future investments.