Prospector Trails
Minerals/Bulk minerals
Iron ore is the raw material for steel, the largest metal market by far.
01 · Where it's mined
Usable ore output was about 2.6 Gt in 2025 (1.6 Gt iron content): Australia 980 Mt, Brazil 420 Mt, India 310 Mt and China 290 Mt. Reserves are about 87 Gt of iron content. The Simandou project in Guinea began exporting in late 2025.
Mine production, Fe content, 2025. Columns on the globe show each country's share.
02 · A century of output
03 · Where it goes
Iron ores and concentrates, non-agglomerated, 2024, by value
Arcs run from exporter to importer; thicker means more value. CEPII BACI reconciled trade data.
04 · What it's used for
Steel demand, above all in China.
05 · Who calls it critical
Critical only for the UK and China among the lists we hold; high-grade ore matters for low-carbon steel.
06 · Mines to know
Spikes mark mines with output in open data; height follows reported output. Where a public source says where a mine's product goes, an arc runs to that plant.
Every iron ore mine and project, by countryThe detail
Usable ore output was about 2.6 Gt in 2025 (1.6 Gt iron content): Australia 980 Mt, Brazil 420 Mt, India 310 Mt and China 290 Mt. Reserves are about 87 Gt of iron content. The Simandou project in Guinea began exporting in late 2025.
Steel demand, above all in China.
Critical only for the UK and China among the lists we hold; high-grade ore matters for low-carbon steel.
In 2025, eight open pit iron ore mines (each with associated concentration and pelletizing plants) in Michigan, Minnesota, and Utah shipped 98% of domestic usable iron ore products for consumption in the steel industry in the United States. The remaining 2% of domestic iron ore products were consumed in nonsteel end uses. In 2025, the United States produced iron ore with an estimated value of $3.38 billion, a 25% decrease from $4.51 billion in 2024. Four iron metallic plants—one direct-reduced iron (DRI) plant in Louisiana and three hot-briquetted iron (HBI) plants in Indiana, Ohio, and Texas—operated during the year to supply steelmaking raw materials with an estimated value of $874 million, a 4% decrease from $914 million in 2024. The United States was estimated to have produced 1.4% and consumed 1.7% of the world’s iron ore output.
Iron ore production in 2025 was estimated to have decreased owing to the idling of two iron ore mines in March as part of the operating company’s strategy to decrease stockpiles. Domestic iron ore production was estimated to be 38 million tons in 2025, a 16% decrease from 45.1 million tons in 2024. Global prices of iron ore averaged a unit value of $99.07 per ton (spot prices for imported iron ore fines, 62% iron content, cost, insurance, and freight, at Tianjin Port, China) in the first 9 months of 2025, a decrease from $112.07 during the same period in 2024. Domestic pig iron production and raw steel production were estimated to have increased to 21 million tons and 82 million tons, respectively, in 2025. In December 2024, one company announced that construction would restart at a 7-million-ton-per-year-production-capacity iron mine and pelletizing plant project in Minnesota with startup expected in early 2026. In March, another company idled two iron ore mines in Minnesota: one was indefinitely idled and the other was partially idled. The two mines were rated for a combined 10-million-ton-per-year production capacity. In September and October, two companies announced plans to explore rare-earth-element extraction at iron ore deposits. One of the companies was developing an iron ore mine in Nevada with a permit to extract 11.5 million tons per year. The other operates multiple mines in Minnesota and Michigan. The World Steel Association4 estimated global finished steel demand to remain unchanged in 2025. Global end-use consumption of steel products was affected in 2025 by declining steel demand in China offset by growth in developing economies including Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam. Globally, the manufacturing sector was affected by affordability pressures on consumers and elevated production costs. Countries with economies reliant on the export of automotive components, machinery, and other steel-intensive goods were negatively affected by trade tensions. On November 7, 2025, the U.S. Final 2025 List of Critical Minerals was published in the Federal Register (90 FR 50494). The changes in the 2025 list from the prior list published in 2022 (87 FR 10381) were the addition of copper, lead, potash, rhenium, silicon, and silver, based on the U.S. Geological Survey updated methodology for the 2025 list. As required by the Energy Act, public comment and interagency input were requested in response to the draft U.S. list of critical minerals published in the Federal Register (90 FR 41591). Based on that input, boron, metallurgical coal, phosphate, and uranium were also added. Metallurgical coal was added because of its role in the smelting and refining of iron ore into steel at blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces.
The only source of primary iron is iron ore, used directly as direct-shipping ore or converted to briquettes, concentrates, DRI, iron nuggets, pellets, or sinter. DRI, iron nuggets, and scrap are extensively used for steelmaking in electric arc furnaces and in iron and steel foundries. Technological advancements have been made that allow hematite to be recovered from tailings basins and pelletized.
None. See the Iron and Steel Scrap chapter.
U.S. resources are estimated to be 110 billion tons of usable iron ore containing about 27 billion tons of iron. U.S. resources are mainly low-grade taconite-type ores from the Lake Superior district that require beneficiation and agglomeration prior to commercial use. World resources are estimated to be greater than 900 billion tons of iron ore containing more than 260 billion tons of iron.