Iron Ore

How to Identify Iron Ore

Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. It is an important raw material for iron and steel production enterprises. Natural ore (raw iron ore) is gradually separated by crushing, grinding, magnetic separation and other procedures. Iron ore is a kind of mineral aggregate that contains iron or iron compound and can be used economically. Iron forms a critical part of modern civilization and its use dates back to thousands of years.

The grade of iron ore refers to the mass fraction of iron element in iron ore, generally speaking, the iron content. For example,if the grade of iron ore is 62, it means the mass fraction of iron element is 62%.

Iron ore resources

The world's iron ore resources are concentrated in Australia, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, India, the United States, Canada, South Africa, and other countries. As the world's largest iron ore demanding country, China's iron ore reserves are big but the grade is relatively low. From the perspective of the industrial economy, it is better to import from Australia, Brazil and other countries that are rich in the natural iron ore resources.

Brazil's iron ore resources are extremely rich, accounting for 6.5% of the world's total reserves, making it the world's largest producer of iron ore. Brazil's Vale (CVRD) is the world's largest iron ore producer and exporter, and the largest mining company in the Americas. With a reserve of about 4 billion tons of iron ore, its main minerals can be mined for nearly 400 years.

Main feature and types of iron ore

Iron exists in nature in the form of compound, especially in the form of iron oxide. Magnetite is a kind of iron oxide ore, the main component of which is Fe3O4. It is a complex of Fe2O3 and FeO. It is black gray, with a specific gravity of about 5.15, containing fe72.4%, O 27.6%, and is magnetic. After long-term weathering, it becomes hematite.

Hematite is also a kind of iron oxide ore, the main component is Fe2O3, which is dark red, the specific gravity is about 5.26, containing Fe70%, o30%, which is the most important iron ore.

Siderite is a kind of ore containing ferrous carbonate. Its main component is FeCO3, which is cyan gray and its specific gravity is about 3.8. This kind of ore mostly contains a considerable amount of calcium salt and magnesium salt.

HUARO provides different grades of iron ore to customers around the world to meet their needs.