As early as the 3rd millennium BC, the Elamites mined tin and copper in what is now southwestern Iran for the production of bronze. In ancient Persia (Achaemenid Empire 550–330 BC), the mines belonged to the king of kings – the Royal Road led past the mines of lapis lazuli in Badakhshan (imported via Bactra) and turquoise near Neyshabur, which the Persians called “pırouz” (victorious) and exported as far as Egypt and Rome.
The most famous was the silver mine at Laureion in Asia Minor (after the conquest in 546 BC), but at home they mined iron, copper and lead in the Zagros Mountains; they imported gold and silver from Armenia and the Caucasus. Darius I minted gold dareiki from the electro mines of Lydia and Sardis, which allowed him to create the world's first stable currency.
According to Herodotus, the Persians paid tribute in talents of silver from mines in Armenia and Bactria.
The Parthians and especially the Sasanians (224–651 AD) expanded mining: the silver mines of Nayin and Anarak, the gold mines of Armenia, and the turquoise mines of Neyshabur reached their peak. The Sasanian king Khosrau I (531–579) had new copper and silver mines dug in Tabaristan and paid Roman engineers to build him sophisticated drainage systems (qanat systems).
After the Arab conquest (651), the caliphs took over the Persian mines; the Abbasids exported turquoise, saffron, and silk to China and Byzantium in the 9th–10th centuries.
In the Middle Ages, the Safavids (1501–1736) restored the great mines of copper in Kerman and turquoise near Mashhad; Shah Abbas the Great paid European minemasters to modernize the shafts.
The first concessions to Europeans were granted only in 1872 (Baron Julius de Reuter – cancelled) and 1901 (William Knox D’Arcy – oil in Masjid-e Suleiman 1908). Until then, Persia had been extracting minerals for thousands of years using traditional methods – hand picks, fire and vinegar to crack the rock, and qanats to drain it.
Thus, for 4,000 years, ancient Persia transformed its underground into gold, silver, turquoise and power – and laid the foundation for why today's Iran is still one of the richest countries in the world underground...
https://x.com/geogeolite/status/1995176838264451093
...and now, thanks to Khomeini's seizure of power in 1979, the entire country is sinking into the underworld.