Rock rich enough in iron oxides — hematite, magnetite and goethite — to be mined, crushed and sold to ironmakers. Iron ore is the second-largest seaborne bulk commodity after coal, and every blast furnace and direct-reduction plant depends on it, as lump, fines for sintering, or concentrate for pellets.
Also called
Iron ore fines
Lump ore
Pellet feed
Iron ore concentrate
Hematite
Magnetite
62% Fe fines
65% Fe fines
Sinter feed
DR-grade ore
AR
خام الحديد
ZH
铁矿石
DE
Eisenerz
FR
Minerai de fer
ES
Mineral de hierro
IT
Minerale di ferro
TR
Demir cevheri
RU
Железная руда
Main formsSinter fines, lump ore, concentrate (pellet feed), DR-grade lump and fines
Typical sizesFines below about 6.3–10 mm; lump about 6.3–31.5 mm; concentrate mostly below 0.15 mm
Main standardsISO 3082 (sampling), ISO 2597 (total iron), ISO 3087 (moisture), ISO 4695 / ISO 7215 (reducibility), ISO 3271
Key grades58%, 62% and 65% Fe fines; 63–65% Fe lump; 66–68%+ Fe concentrate
Typical usesSintering and blast-furnace ironmaking, pelletising, direct reduction (DRI/HBI)
Overview
Iron ore is valued by its iron content and its impurities. Hematite (Fe₂O₃, up to 70% Fe) and magnetite (Fe₃O₄, up to 72%) are the main minerals; the rock around them adds silica, alumina, phosphorus and sulphur, which cost the ironmaker in slag, energy and steel quality. Seaborne trade is priced on index products of 62% Fe and 65% Fe, with premiums and discounts for each percentage point of iron and of the main impurities.
Direct-shipping ores, mined mainly in Australia's Pilbara and Brazil's Carajás and Quadrilátero Ferrífero, are crushed and screened into lump and fines and shipped without further upgrading. Lower-grade magnetite and itabirite ores are ground fine and concentrated by magnetic or gravity separation and flotation to 65–70% Fe; that concentrate is too fine to charge directly and is made into pellets. Fines go to sinter plants at the blast furnace.
Ore for direct reduction must be richer and cleaner than blast-furnace ore — generally 67% Fe or more with low silica and alumina — because a DRI plant has no slag to remove gangue; whatever goes in comes out in the DRI and must be melted in the electric furnace. That is why most DR plants run on high-grade pellets, with some lump.
Seaborne iron ore is dominated by China, which takes around 70% of it, and by producers in Australia and Brazil; the Dalian exchange's futures are watched as the market's daily price — see MESteel's iron ore futures chart. In the Middle East, Iran mines large volumes of its own ore, while the GCC imports high-grade concentrate and pellet feed for the pellet plants in Bahrain and Oman, and DR-grade pellets for the region's gas-based direct-reduction plants. Iron ore fines are shipped under the IMSBC Code, which requires the cargo's moisture to be below its transportable moisture limit.
Forms & sizes
Sinter fines
Below about 6.3–10 mm; the bulk of seaborne trade, sintered at blast-furnace plants
Lump
About 6.3–31.5 mm; charged straight into the blast furnace or a DR shaft, sold at a premium
Concentrate / pellet feed
Finely ground and beneficiated ore, 65–70% Fe, for pelletising
DR-grade ore
High-grade lump and concentrate with low silica and alumina for direct reduction
Moisture
Fines typically ship with 6–10% moisture; it is deducted when the cargo is invoiced on a dry basis
Standards & grades
Iron ore is traded on chemistry and size rather than on a product standard; these are the ISO methods contracts refer to for sampling and testing.
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