LOCATION: Kogi, Enugu, Niger, Anambra, FCT, Plateau, Edo, Bauchi, Delta, Benue.
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the form of magnetite, hematite, goethite, limonite or siderite.
Iron ores occur in igneous, metamorphic (transformed), or sedimentary rocks in a variety of geologic environments. Most are sedimentary, but many have been changed by weathering, and so their precise origin is difficult to determine.
Nearly all of Earth’s major iron ore deposits are in rocks that formed over 1.8 billion years ago. At that time Earth’s oceans contained abundant dissolved iron and almost no dissolved oxygen.
The iron ore deposits began forming when the first organisms capable of photosynthesis began releasing oxygen into the waters. This oxygen immediately combined with the abundant dissolved iron to produce hematite or magnetite.
These minerals deposited on the sea floor in great abundance, forming what are now known as the “banded iron formations.” The rocks are “banded” because the iron minerals deposited in alternating bands with silica and sometimes shale. The banding might have resulted from seasonal changes in organism activity.
The primary use of iron ore is in the production of iron. Most of the iron produced is then used to make steel. Steel is used to make automobiles, locomotives, ships, beams used in buildings, furniture, paper clips, tools, reinforcing rods for concrete, bicycles, and thousands of other items. It is the most-used metal by both tonnage and purpose.