Iron Ore
Iron Ore
Iron Ore
(2)
(3)
33.20
52.10
1992 |
31.60
48.40
1993 |
28.10
33.00
43.60
1994 |
24.40
30.40
43.60
1995 |
26.90
33.30
49.10
1996 |
28.50
35.20
52.40
1997 |
28.80
35.20
52.10
1998 |
1999 |
29.60
26.90
36.20
32.20
53.50
46.40
2000 |
27.60
33.90
49.20
2001 |
28.90
35.10
50.10
2002 |
28.60
34.30
47.30
2003 |
31.40
37.30
52.00
2004 |
37.30
44.40
61.80
2005 |
64.00
79.00
115.50
2006 |
2007 |
76.20
83.40
94.00
112.00
Value
Iron ore has a huge impact on the states
economy because it is our largest metal that we
export for example in 2001 58.7% of all metals
exported was iron this is significant because it
made the state a profit of over a billion dollars.
But the iron ore industry is not just valuable
because it makes the state income it also
creates jobs and keeps our unemployment rate
low. It is also said that from one ore cart on a
train the company can pay every worker on the
mine their yearly wage.
Chemical Properties
Name: Iron
Symbol: Fe
Atomic Number: 26
Atomic Mass: 55.845
Melting Point: 1535.0 C
Boiling Point: 2750.0 C
Number of Protons/Electrons: 26
Number of Neutrons: 30
Classification: Transition Metal
Crystal Structure: Cubic
Colour: Silvery
Uses
Iron main use is to be made in to steel which
can then be formed into many things such as
cars, houses, machinery and any other things
that need steel to help in construction. Steel is
the most common used metal in the world.
Steel is not one hundred percent iron it
contains other metals such as Carbon
(0.15%), Silicon (0.01%), Sulfur (0.05%) and
Phosphorous (0.02%) and the iron content is
99.2%.
How it is mined
Iron is mined by open cut mining because this is
the most efficient way of getting to all the ore. The
process of a new mine being built is that a survey
team containing drillers and geologists are sent to
an area to determine if the ore in that area is worth
mining. If the ore is good enough and in a large
enough deposit the top soil is removed and work
begins on digging a giant hole in the hill that the
iron is located in.the ore is then dug by an
excavator and put into haul packs which move the
ore to primary and secondary crushers which make
the iron into chunks that are then shipped to ports
for further crushing
Extraction
The extraction of iron from the ore is done
in a blast furnace using heated gasses and
a substance called coke this is known as
reduction. The iron is poured into the
furnace through a tube at the top of the
furnace while at the same time hot gasses
are being blown onto the raw ore once the
ore reaches about half way down coke is
poured in to melt the ore and remove the
oxygen and the impurities once the ore
reaches the bottom it is a molten metal and
that is sucked out while the slag is taken
away and discarded of. The iron is then
made into pellets and shipped around the
world ready to be melted down and made
into the things that we want.
Facts
BHP Billion iron ore holds the world record for the
longest train.