Iron ore

Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be extracted.

Uses

The primary use for iron ore is the production of iron, including sponge iron and pig iron. Some forms of iron ore also have other uses, such as in the pigment ochre.

Natural Sources

Bog Iron

A piece of bog iron. Note the light reddish brown color and pitted texture

An easily accessible source of iron ore is so-called "bog iron", formed naturally in bogs or swamps by the oxidation of iron minerals dissolved in water. It can be identified by its reddish brown color and uneven texture. Early metallurgists identified bog-iron deposits by indicators such as withered grass, a wet environment, hygrophilous grass-dominated vegetation, and reddish-brown solutions or depositions in nearby waters. Chemically, bog iron is mostly made up of the mineral geothite, a form of iron oxyhydroxide that is also the main component of rust. Because iron-bearing water continues to flow into a bog over time, the iron in a given bog will replenish over the course of a few decades.

References

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Bog_iron, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Iron_ore, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (view authors).