turning point in the world’s progressive transformations. Moreover, in today’s highly competitive business environment, this issue has become an inevitable necessity that can lead to the survival or elimination of businesses from the competition. The mining and mineral industries are no exception and are intertwined with the growing development of knowledge. Among these, Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company, which plays a decisive role in the upstream sector of the country’s steel chain, has adopted various approaches aimed at developing knowledge capacities within the company, which has also led to significant achievements.

In today’s era, knowledge, experience, and expertise are among the most important assets and properties of economic enterprises in the competitive arena. Therefore, developing knowledge capacities in organizations is considered one of the essential elements for maintaining survival and enhancing competitiveness. Factors affecting the development of knowledge capacities in companies should be sought simultaneously in both internal and external factors. Among the internal factors affecting the development of this issue, we can refer to the attitude of senior managers, organizational culture, the establishment of an effective knowledge management system, and the training and empowerment of human capital, and among the external factors affecting this issue, we can refer to cooperation with universities and knowledge-based companies. A look at the approaches and strategies of Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company also shows that this company has prioritized the issue of developing knowledge capacities and producing knowledge-based products, which indicates the company’s long strides towards comprehensive development and moving towards a knowledge-based economy.

Knowledge-Based

The strategy of collaborating with knowledge-based companies is one strategy that not only provides an opportunity for these companies to play a role in the industrial arena but also, through the commercialization of ideas, leads to the improvement of technology in mining companies. In this regard, Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company, which is a pioneer in improving the level of technology in the mining industry, has always paid special attention to maintaining and developing its interactions with knowledge-based companies. Considering that the Sangan region is known as one of the country’s mining hubs, the investment and cooperation of Sangan Steel Company with knowledge-based companies will have a significant impact on empowering the industry in northeastern Iran. Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company, considering the significant impact of knowledge-based development on various dimensions of businesses as a prominent competitive advantage, continuously identifies knowledge-based companies and centers with the aim of addressing technology-based needs and optimizing the current situation. SSMIC’s use of an approved chart and a capable human resource to follow up on localization and research and development issues, allocating a suitable budget for defining and following up on knowledge-based projects, and constant support for startups and technology-focused events, indicate this company’s special attention to creating effective collaborations with knowledge-based companies and centers in the country.

One of the significant actions of Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company in the knowledge-based area is the establishment of this company’s technology park in the Sangan-Khaf industrial zone, with the aim of actively pursuing the needs of the complex in cooperation with science and technology parks and top universities in the country, which was carried out in cooperation with the Khorasan Science and Technology Park. This technology park, which has been accompanied by an investment of about one trillion rials, can provide an opportunity for knowledge-based companies to present new ideas in the field of the latest technologies, and in return, Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company can also use the potential of knowledge-based companies to improve technology and localize equipment and parts. Another forward-looking action of SSMIC in this regard is the signing of a 250-billion-rial contract between this company and the Khorasan Razavi Science and Technology Park, which was aimed at developing the market for companies present in this park.

Essentially, the sustainable supply of spare parts for production lines is one of the most important prerequisites for continuous production and achieving annual goals. On the other hand, the technology of Iran’s steel production lines belongs to foreign countries, and in most cases, these foreign companies do not provide the relevant documents for the technology of manufacturing parts and equipment. Therefore, domestic manufacturing of parts and equipment is of great importance in the sustainable and high-quality production of products and minimizing unplanned stoppages. In this regard, Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company has also allocated a special place to the approach of localizing spare parts and equipment needed by the company, and through cooperation with domestic knowledge-based companies, has also acquired the knowledge of localizing many of the required parts.

A Comprehensive Achievement

One of the most prominent actions of Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company in the direction of cooperating with knowledge-based companies can be pointed to one of the recent projects of this company as a new 5.2 million-ton concentrate production plant. The noteworthy point about the aforementioned project is that, considering the use of magnetic iron ore by domestic mining and industrial companies, this project has been defined with the aim of using hematite iron ore resources and converting them into magnetite, which is unique in this scale in the country. The importance of this project becomes more pronounced when it is noted that these hematite iron ore resources are abundantly found in the Khorasan region and southern regions of the country and had previously been considered waste. Therefore, the launch of the aforementioned project, which has been made possible through cooperation with one of the country’s capable companies, on the one hand, is a significant step towards utilizing low-grade mineral reserves in the country and, on the other hand, will improve the company’s knowledge in the field of extracting lower-grade minerals.

Another approach that has a positive impact on the development of organizations’ knowledge capacities is the connection between industry and university. Although this connection has not had a very strong trend in the country so far, its effective formation has had significant results. In this regard, Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company has always paid special attention to this issue, so much so that it can be said that this company has become the hub of industry-university relations in the country. Among the recent actions of this company in the direction of cooperating with universities, we can refer to the opening of the Professor Ali Mohammadi Martyr Science and Technology Research Institute of Tehran University next to the Sangan Steel Industrial Complex.

In order to expand its cooperation with the country’s leading universities, this company has also signed a scientific and technical memorandum of understanding with Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, based on which Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company will support graduate theses related to the industry and mining sector in order to meet its research and research needs. Undoubtedly, this action, which means the flow of new scientific and innovative capacities into SSMIC, can lead to the resolution of many of the challenges of the industrial sector.

Strategic Ally

The importance of the position of human resources and, better put, the human capital of organizations is becoming clearer every day. Therefore, paying attention to the training of human resources and their growth and empowerment has become a necessity in today’s organizations. Effective training, by providing employees with the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve organizational goals, leads to increased efficiency. In this regard, SSMIC has also allocated an important place to this issue in its policies, so much so that it refers to training as its strategic ally. Among the strategies of this company’s training and human capital development unit, we can refer to pre-employment training, management of training and employee learning, and the development of managers’ competencies. Also, the per capita training of employees, the per capita training of managerial levels, the effectiveness of training courses, the competency rate of managerial levels, and the competency rate of employees are among the strategic indicators of SSMIC regarding training and development of human capital.

Since 2020, the training unit of SSMIC has undertaken the reengineering of the comprehensive system of training and employee development based on the requirements of the ISO 10015:2019 standard (the standard for the effectiveness of training in organizations), which has brought about the transition from the training management paradigm to the management of competency and employee development for this company. It should be noted that this reengineering process has been achieved through several different steps in this company, the first step of which was the policy-making of learning and development matters. In the continuation, designing and developing sub-processes of evaluation, gap analysis, and identification of competency needs, designing and planning learning opportunities, managing the execution of learning opportunities, evaluating actions and results of competency management, and finally monitoring learning processes have been other steps in the reengineering path of the comprehensive training system in Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company.

It is worth mentioning that the forward-looking actions of Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company in the field of human resources management have led to this company receiving the “C1” trophy in the evaluation of the seventh human resources award of the 34000 model in 2023. It should be noted that the company had received the “C2” mark the year before, which means the growing trend of Sangan Khorasan Steel Mining Industries Company in this area and the placement of this company among the top 10 companies in the field of human resources.