3 ms·
Iron ore is iron oxide, not elemental iron. Elemental iron on Earth is extremely rare due to the oxidizing atmosphere. It is found either in meteorites, or so
by meindnoch 2y ago
Iron ore is iron oxide, not elemental iron.
Elemental iron on Earth is extremely rare due to the oxidizing atmosphere. It is found either in meteorites, or so called telluric iron deposits (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telluric_iron https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telluric_iron), which is only found on Greenland, and was produced by iron ore getting accidentally smelted by magmatic processes.
- loufe 2y agoYes, but the 60%-70% I mention is explicitly Fe content, and not the magnetite/hematite content. Around page 165 in the NI-43-101 they have some details: https://www.miningdataonline.com/reports/MaryRiver_Technical_012011.pdf https://www.miningdataonline.com/reports/MaryRiver_Technical...
- meindnoch 2y agoThe deposit contains 60-70% of iron atoms, in various iron oxides, silicates, oxides, carbonates, etc. It's not elemental iron. It has to be smelted to get elemental iron. That's like saying seawater has 12.5% hydrogen. Technically true, but you need an awful lot of work to get that hydrogen into elemental form.