Iron ore is an essential raw material for iron and steel production enterprises. Natural ore (iron ore) is gradually separated iron through crushing, grinding, magnetic separation, flotation, gravity separation, and other process. Iron ore is a collection of minerals containing iron monomers or iron compounds that can be utilized economically. The world’s iron ore resources are concentrated in Australia, Brazil, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, India, the United States, Canada, South Africa and other countries.
The World’s Top 15 Iron Ore Varieties And Their Characteristics
1. Pb Fines/Pb Lumps
Produced in Australia, also known as Pilbara Blend (operated by Rio Tinto), the grade of the powder is around 61.5%, partly limonite, with good sintering properties; the grade of the lumps is around 62.5%, limonite, with good reducibility and average thermal strength. PB powder and lumps can be made from Tom Price, Paraboudou, Marandou, Brookman, Narmudi, Xi’an Angelus, and other mines to blend into the powder ore.
2. Yandi Fines
Produced in Australia (operated by BHP Billiton), with a grade of about 58%, low aluminum content, limonite, high water of crystallization, high moisture requirement for mixing, and can partially replace Mt. Newman fines or Brazilian fines due to its loose structure, good sinter assimilation and reactivity. Containing relatively low Al2O3, both of these powders are coarser than Hamersley powder, they both have reasonable smelting properties but poor sintering properties.
3. Mac Fines
The standard grade of MAC powder is about 61.5%, and currently supplied to the Chinese market is mostly about 58% grade, part of it is limonite, with better sintering performance, containing about 5% water of crystallization, high burn loss in iron making, and the sintering rate of sintered ore decreases gradually with the increase of its ration. After the steel plant research, the MAC powder ratio of 15% -20% when the sintered ore level is lower than 5mm is low, and the ratio of 20% is the highest rate of sintered products.
4. Newman Fines/Newman Lumps
Produced in Newman Hill Mine in Newman Township, East Pilbara, Australia, Newman Fines/Newman Lumps are hematite ores with good sintering performance, with a grade of powder around 62.5% and lumps around 65%, which are produced by BHP Billiton in Western Australia, Australia.
5. Robe River Fines/Robe River Lumps
Produced by the Robe River Iron Ore Consolidated Company in Australia; grades around 57.5 percent, with 3-5 percent composite water, which leads to a high fuel rate and low productivity; belongs to the limonitic iron ore, which has poor sintering properties, but its sintered ore has good smelting properties.
6. Rocket Powder
Also known as FMG (Fortescue Metals Group) powder, produced by Australia’s third-largest iron ore producer FMG; said to be used as a component of the rocket engine fuel, so it is called rocket powder, with a grade of 58.5%, about 4% silica, aluminum 1.5%, belonging to the limonite iron ore, sintering performance is good! FMG powder ore chemical composition is better than Yandy powder, but the sintering and ball-making performance are not as good as Yandy powder.
7. Rocket Special Powder
Produced by the FMG company, 57.5% of the rocket powder is graded, 5% is silicon, 2% is aluminum, and there are other smelting properties with the rocket powder. Super special powder grade is lower than the rocket special powder 1 grade, at 56.5%, silicon at 6%, aluminum at 3%, and water of crystallization at 8.5%; other smelting properties are similar.
8. Atlas Powder
Produced by Australia’s fourth largest iron ore producer, Atlas Iron Company, located in Australia’s Pilbara mines of iron ore, grade 57.5%, is limonitic iron ore, water of crystallization in 9%, silicon content is high in 8%, physicochemical properties and smelting performance with the rocket powder of the ultra-special powder is similar.
9. KMG Powder
Produced by KMG, a private Australian mining company, the mine is located in Perth, Australia, and is the closest Western Australian mine to China, adjacent to the northernmost port in Western Australia. The mine is expected to produce 67 million tons of ore in two years, which is 58-59% low-grade coarse powder hematite-based, with 8% silicon, 3% aluminum, 0.08% phosphorus, and 0.03% sulfur. The performance is similar to that of rocket-special powder but much higher than that of rocket-special powder silicon.
10. CSN Powder, Block
Brazilian CSN (the full name of the Brazilian state-owned ferrous metal company) produces iron ore with an iron content of 65% or more and a silicon content of 1% -2%.
11. SSFT Powder
The Brazilian Vale company specially formulated sintered powder for the Chinese market. It has an SSFT iron content of about 65% and a silicon content of about 4.4%.
12. Card Powder
Caracas powder for short, the English abbreviation for SFCJ powder, the full name of the SINTER FEED CArajas, iron content of more than 65% (65-67%), silicon content of 1% -2%. Aluminum 1% or so, phosphorus 0.033-0.045%, burn loss of 1.6% or so, moisture 8-9%, produced in Brazil, Caracas mine of iron ore, because of the excellent quality of the powder ore in this place, will not be as poor as the southern source of the ore, so it is very popular in the international market, the price is higher than the south of the source of the ore.
13. The Southern Brazilian Powder
The mine is located in Brazil and has a southern source of “iron four corners,” also known as the southern Brazilian powder. The principal mines in the southern mining area are Itabira, Mariana, Mihas Centrals, ParaopeBAl, VarGEm Grande, and Itabiritos, all of which are located in the Iron Quadrangle region of Brazil, and the primary mining method in the Southern Mining Region is open pit mining. This area is dominated by iron quartzite, with a high hematite content of around 66% iron. Mainly includes SSFG powder (standard sintered powder in southern Brazil, iron grade 65%, silicon 3.2-3.8%, aluminum 1.2-1.8%, phosphorus 0.049-0.065%, manganese 0.25-0.40%, water 6.5-8.5%, burnt loss of 1.7% or so), SFOT powder and so on.
14. Brazilian Coarse
Refers to Brazilian coarse-grained powder ore and is a general term for Brazilian coarse powder, including card powder, SSFT powder, CSN powder, southern powder, etc. Grades from 65% to 58% vary, and the four southeastern iron corners of the production have the best smelting performance of the ore powder.
15. Indian Powder
Refers to India fine particle powder ore but does not meet the Indian coarse particle size standards. Grade ranges from 40%-63.5%, is hematite, high-grade smelting performance is excellent, low-grade silica-aluminum composition is higher, hand as a higher smelting value.
The top 15 iron ore varieties are listed above. They are widely used in the global steel and metallurgical industries, and due to their composition and characteristics, different ores are suitable for different production needs. If you want more iron ore knowledge, please keep your eyes on our blogs. If you want to know the iron ore solution, you can contact us for a design.