THE OCCURRENCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF IRON ORE ON THE AFRICA CONTINENTS

ABSTRACT

Iron ore is regarded as the second most important commodity behind oil. As an essential input for the production of crude steel iron ore feed the world‘s largest trillion- dollar-a year metal market and is the backbone of global infrastructure. To meet growing demand for steel products, world iron ore production has increased dramatically since 2000.

Iron occurs in many differences geological types of deposits, the iron formation-hosted iron ore deposits account for the majority of current world production and resources of iron ore, followed by the important phenarezoic ooidal ironstone channel iron deposit (CID) sub-group. The iron formation-hosted iron ore are subdivided into unenriched iron formation ores martite-goethite supergene ores, residual hematite ores and microplaty hematite ores. The three most common iron ore minerals are magnetite (Fe₃O₄), hematite (Fe₂O₃) and goethite (FeOOH), with the most common form goethite being brown, yellow ochreous, and dark brown vitreous goethite.

Iron ore deposits are found in sedimentary rocks. They formed from chemical reactions that combined iron and oxygen in marine and fresh waters. The most important minerals in these deposits are iron oxides: hematite and magnetite. Iron oxide minerals show a wide array of textures that result from oxidation, exsolution or primary crystallization.

FURTHER READING; GEOLOGY PROJECT TOPICS WITH MATERIALS