This iron ore is from an iron mine in Western Australia. High quality iron ores consist of mostly magnetite and hematite minerals, and their iron content can be as high as 70%. Magnetite and hematite are two different types of iron oxide.
The chemical composition of magnetite is Fe3O4 and hematite is Fe2O3. Smelting is used to extract iron from iron oxide. In this process, the powdered iron ore is mixed with carbon. Under intense heat, the carbon will remove the oxygen from the iron oxide. So, in the natural rusting process, iron is oxidized into iron oxide and in the smelting process the iron oxide is reduced into iron.
Written by Jamin Djuang
