Iron ore plant in Kenya
Richard Singh in Kenya holding iron ore sample
Rich iron ore in Kenya
Iron mining site in Philippines
Iron ore close-up
Iron ore on our site in Philippines
Shipping port in Philippines
Where was iron ore found?
Iron ore is found in many places around the world. In the United States, it was the Mesabi Range of northeastern Minnesota. That deposit was found in 1887, and it is one of the main reasons why the United States became such an industrial power over the following century. The huge range had rich ore, up to 3% iron, was not good for farming. U.S. Steel and Bethlehem Steel (which no longer exist) smelted its ores whith coal (coke) from the Appalachias and limestone from as far as Texas. Huge railroads infrastructure build to support this industry built this nation.
Other countries such as South Africa, Angola, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Brazil, Guatemala, Philippines and Australia are also rich in iron ore. Source(s): http://geography.about.com/library/misc/...
Iron ore prices
Price forecast and news
Recent economy shows interesting changes on the market of iron ore prices. The leader of iron ore mining, China, has increased an import and Australian Mt. Gibson Iron Ltd. has increased its iron ore price about 6.9 as of June 12th 2009. This situation may affect each single iron ore company, which will in turn set iron ore fines prices and iron ore spot price.
Products for major construction and metallurgy industries
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| Timber | Lumber | Iron sand | Iron fines | Iron ore | Chromite | Manganese |
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 colour from dark gray, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red. The iron itself is usually found in the form of magnetite (Fe3O4), hematite (Fe2O3), goethite, limonite or siderite. Hematite is also known as "natural ore". The name refers to the early years of mining, when certain hematite ores contained 66% iron and could be fed directly into iron making blast furnaces. Iron ore is the raw material used to make pig iron, which is one of the main raw materials to make steel. 98% of the mined iron ore is used to make steel.
Sources
Metallic iron is virtually unknown on the surface of the Earth except as iron-nickel alloys from meteorites and very rare forms of deep mantle xenoliths. Therefore, all sources of iron used by human industry exploit iron oxide minerals, the primary form which is used in industry being hematite.
However, in some situations, more inferior iron ore sources have been used by industrialized societies when access to high-grade hematite ore was not available. This has included utilization of taconite in the United States, particularly during World War II, and goethite or bog ore used during the American Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. Magnetite is often used because it is magnetic and hence easily liberated from the gangue minerals. Inferior sources of iron ore generally require beneficiation. Due to the high density of hematite relative to silicates, beneficiation usually involves a combination of crushing and milling as well as heavy liquid separation. This is achieved by passing the finely crushed ore over a bath of solution containing bentonite or other agent which increases the density of the solution. When the density of the solution is properly calibrated, the hematite will sink and the silicate mineral fragments will float and can be removed.
Iron ore mining methods vary by the type of ore being mined. There are four main types of iron ore deposits worked currently, depending on the mineralogy and geology of the ore deposits. These are magnetite, titanomagnetite, massive hematite and pisolitic ironstone deposits.
Estimated iron ore production in million metric tons for 2006 according to U.S. Geological Survey.
| Country | Production |
|---|---|
| China | 520 |
| Australia | 270 |
| Brazil | 250 |
| India | 150 |
| Russia | 105 |
| Ukraine | 73 |
| United States | 54 |
| South Africa | 40 |
| Canada | 33 |
| Sweden | 24 |
| Venezuela | 20 |
| Iran | 20 |
| Kazakhstan | 15 |
| Mauritania | 11 |
| Other countries | 43 |
| Total world | 1690 |
Manganese
Manganese (pronounced /ˈmæŋɡəniːz/) is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature (often in combination with iron), and in many minerals. As a free element, manganese is a metal with important industrial metal alloy uses, particularly in stainless steels.
Manganese ions have various colors, depending on their oxidation state, and are used industrially as pigments. The permanganates of sodium, potassium and barium are powerful oxidizers. Manganese dioxide is used as the cathode (electron acceptor) material in standard and alkaline disposable dry cells and batteries.
Manganese(II) ions function as cofactors for a number of enzymes in higher organisms, where they are essential in detoxification of super oxide free radicals. The element is a required trace mineral for all known living organisms. In larger amounts, and apparently with far greater activity by inhalation, manganese can cause a poisoning syndrome in mammals, with neurological damage which is sometimes irreversible.
Physical
Manganese is a gray–white metal, resembling iron. It is a hard metal and is very brittle, fusible with difficulty, but easily oxidized.[3] Manganese metal and its common ions are paramagnetic. While manganese metal does not form a permanent magnet, it does exhibit strong magnetic properties in the presence of an external magnetic field.
Applications
- Steel
- Aluminum alloys
Manganese is mined in Australia, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Ghana and Gabon.
Chromite
Chromite is iron magnesium chromium oxide: (Fe, Mg)Cr2O4. It is an oxide mineral belonging to the spinel group. Magnesium can substitute for iron in variable amounts; also, aluminum and ferric iron commonly substitute for chromium.
Occurrence
Chromite is found in peridotite from the Earth's mantle. It also occurs in layered ultramafic intrusive rocks. In addition, it is found in metamorphic rocks such as some serpentinites. Ore deposits of chromite form as early magmatic differentiates. It is commonly associated with olivine, magnetite, serpentine, and corundum. The vast Bushveld igneous complex of South Africa is a large layered mafic to ultramafic igneous body with some layers consisting of 90% chromite making the rare rock type, chromitite.
Uses
Chromite is also used as a refractory material, because it has a high heat stability. The only ore of chromium is the mineral chromite. The two main products of Chromite refining are ferrochromium and metallic chromium, for those products the ore smelter process differs considerably. For the production of ferrochromium the chromite ore (FeCr2O4) is reduced with either aluminum or silicon in an aluminothermic reaction and for the production of pure chromium the iron has to be separated from the chromium in a two step roasting and leaching process.
Mining
In 2002 14,600,000 metric tons of chromite have been mined. The largest producers have been South Africa (44%) India (18%), Kazakhstan (16%) Zimbabwe (5%), Finland (4%) Iran (4%) and Brazil (2%) with several other countries producing the rest of less than 10% of the world production.
Minor Production
In Pakistan, Chromite is mined from the ultramafic rocks in mainly the Muslim Bagh area of Zhob District of Balochistan. Most of the chromite is of metallurgical grade with Cr2O3 averaging 40% and a chrome to iron ratio of 2.6:1. Afghanistan has significant deposits of high grade Chromite ore.
Recently, the biggest user of Chromite ore has been China, importing large quantities from South Africa, Pakistan and other countries. The concentrate is used to make ferrochromium, which is in turn used to make steel.
Lumber or timber
Lumber or timber is wood that is used in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production. Timber often refers to the wood contents of standing, live trees that can be used for lumber or fiber production, although it can also be used to describe sawn lumber whose smallest dimension is not less than 5 inches (127 mm).
Lumber is supplied either rough or finished. Besides pulpwood, rough lumber is the raw material for furniture-making and other items requiring additional cutting and shaping. It is available in many species. Finished lumber is supplied in standard sizes, mostly for the construction industry, primarily softwood from coniferous species including pine, fir and spruce (collectively known as Spruce-pine-fir), cedar, hemlock, but also some hardwood, for high-grade flooring.
