Iron ore and its mining

Iron, which brought the well known industrial revolution in the 19th Century, is being in use earlier than that. Iron is the most basic commodity of today without which we cannot think of doing even a single work. From small pin to large machines, all are the products of iron, which is used for their manufacturing purpose after being processed. 

To get this iron, it has to be extracted from iron ores which are rich in iron and these rocks are known as iron ores. These rocks vary in shape, size and colour. The ores are a combination of iron with different materials like nickel, silicon, manganese and other materials which give it different colour like dark grey, deep purple, rusty red or bright yellow. Mining of iron ores thus depends on what kind of ore it is and currently there are four types of iron ores that work. These are: titanomagnetite, magnetite, pisolitic and massive hematite ironstone deposits. 

Iron ore is mostly used to make Pig Iron which is the raw material for Steel. Around 95% of iron is used for making steel now days. Iron ores are found around the world but economical producing mines are dominated by some of the countries like China, Brazil, India and Russia. The major industries in which Iron is used are structural engineering, automobiles, Maritime, machineries and its parts and for home utensils. 

India is the fourth largest producer of Iron ore. The country is having the iron ore reserves of around 13000 million tonnes and it is continuously increasing. It is being exported to many other countries especially to Japan, United States and European countries where the consumption is at the highest levels. Iron Ore exporters in India thus contributes highly to the GDP of country by bringing good amount of foreign exchange.

The everyday importance of minerals in our life

Minerals have become the basic ingredients of our life. We are now surrounded by minerals each and every day. A simple thing is made from many combined minerals. Well, if we have to define mineral in simple terms, it is something that naturally occurs as inorganic product. These have solid substance base having definite chemical composition and an ordered internal structure. If any substance has all these things it can be called as mineral. In Industry, a mineral is defined in many ways; like in mining, anything that is mined is mineral. Minerals manufacturers are mixing and matching different mineral of the highly advanced usage in different industries. 

To make it simple, some of the basic and commonly found and used minerals are lime, bauxite, sulfur, crushed stones, salt, sand and gravel, iron ores, gypsum, phosphate rocks, dimension stone, barite, lead, copper, potash, clays, soda ash, aluminum, chlorite, cobalt, lead, manganese, mica, perlite, quartz, silver, silica, titanium, tungsten, zinc and the list goes on. Each is having its own unique property and these are mixed either with metal or with each other to have a unique product which is useful in many industrial areas. The physical properties of each mineral is different, around 4000 minerals are found on earth and each have its unique set of properties in terms of luster, streak, color, darkness, solubility, cleavage, specific gravity, magnetism, fracture and many more. 

These physical properties are important to identify the minerals and their usage in industry. Like for example, Gold is the best suited for making jewelry as its bright yellow color is attractive to people and can easily be shaped into different styles. Another example can be mineral talc, which after being grounded is perfectly suited as foot powder because it is very soft and slippery and has the ability to absorb odor, oil and moisture.