11 Biggest Iron Ore Producers in the World in 2017

The demand for iron is rising, which can be seen by the amount of imported iron to the countries that are leading in steel production such as USA, China, Germany, Russia or South Korea. As much as 94% of the whole production of iron ore is being shipped to these and other top 15 steel production giant countries.

But not all mined ore is good ore. China, for example has huge amounts of iron ore, making it one of the richest countries in iron ore deposits. But, the trick lies in the quality of the ore itself:

Since China, followed by Australia and India, produces the most iron ore in the world, we can say that Asian continent is the leading in this field. India, for example, has several states and provinces of iron ore production. Largest producer of iron ore in India is Orissa (34% of whole Indian production), followed by Karnataka (22%) and Chhattisgarh (15%). But curiously, as you will see, China is not on our list of the biggest iron ore producers in the world for several reasons. The first one is that even though there is an abundance of iron ore deposits in China, most of it is low-quality iron ore, containing only around 20% of iron (compared to what we earlier noted, that the optimal percentage of iron in the ore is 58-65%).

So, which are the richest regions in the world with the highest quality iron ore? It seems that Australia is definitive the leader on this matter, followed by Brazil and South Africa. That is why huge mining corporations all wish to have a piece of these richest iron ore mines. But in order to see which tose corporations and companies are, take a look at the Insider Monekey’s article on this matter: the 11 Biggest Iron Ore Producers in the World in 2017.