Iron ore composition. Iron ore mining in Russia, the largest deposits and mining methods

Mankind, according to archaeologists, has learned to process iron ore and make various products from it as far back as 3000 BC.

IN different countries Iron ore has been worked with complex techniques, and over the centuries people have only improved in its processing and forging. Over time mining iron ore increased, and the production of quality products grew to such a level that they became available to everyone.

At each time stage, mankind used iron ores that could be processed with economic benefit on the equipment of that time: in the first millennium, only ores with an iron content of at least 80-90% were processed. But the more perfect the technique and methods of extracting iron ore became, the more poor iron ores were used.

IN modern world Industries where iron ore is constantly used are steelmaking, iron smelting, ferroalloys and pipes.

Currently, all iron ore deposits are divided according to the degree of Fe content into rich (57% iron content in the total ore mass) and poor (at least 26%). And the iron ore itself is divided into ordinary (sinter ore), in which the iron content is at an average level, pellets are a raw iron-containing mass, and separated ore with the lowest iron content in the total mass.

A special type of ore is magnetic iron ore with a 70% content of iron oxide and ferrous oxide. The region for the extraction of such iron ore in Russia is the Urals, the Blagodat and Magnitnaya mountains.

Norway and Sweden also have such deposits. In the USA, magnetic iron ore is mined in the state of Pennsylvania, but the best iron ore deposits in this country have actually been depleted, there are deposits with an ordinary ore content (up to 40-50%), the same situation is in the deposits of Ukraine and Russia.

For this reason, many countries leading in the extraction of iron ore have to constantly improve the processing technology of raw materials. Rich deposits in last years found only in Australia, they are available in Canada and Mexico. Wherein North America and Western Europe in the total amount of iron ore production are inferior to Australia, which has been the leader in iron ore production for several years.

Countries such as Germany, Great Britain and Belgium were forced to abandon the development of their own deposits, since the raw materials that are mined there belong to the third group and their further processing is very costly. In these countries, the extraction of iron ore was carried out in an open way. First of all, with such development of poor deposits, great damage is caused environment, because for every ton of pure iron mined, there are several tens of tons of industrial waste dumps.

Iron ore mining technology

In a quarry where a layer of iron ore rocks lies at a shallow depth, excavation is carried out upper layers soil to a depth of about 500 meters. After the top layer is removed, the ore is selected with the help of special equipment and transported from the quarry to processing plants. economic benefit for producers in these countries is declining due to the low quality of the ore requiring beneficiation. This entails additional financial costs, and the need to carry out costly restoration activities at the site of development makes the extraction of such minerals unprofitable.

As a result, countries such as France and Germany have been among the top ten importers of iron ore and iron ore products for many years. primary processing. Deliveries are mainly carried out from Asian countries, as well as Russia.

India has rich deposits in Asian countries. In South America, the main place for the extraction of iron ore is Brazil, which has iron ore deposits with 60% iron ore content and successfully develops specialized enterprises.

The PRC, despite the fact that, according to experts, has large but poor deposits, it still processes this ore. In 2009, China was the leader in iron ore exports. In the total world production of iron ore, this country accounted for 1/3 of all raw materials. In comparison with the middle of the 20th century, the main production of ore for the iron and steel industry has shifted from Western Europe to Asia, South America and Eastern Europe. Asian countries currently account for about 55% of all production.

At the same time, the industry's demand for the extraction of iron ore throughout the world is only increasing year by year. Some countries with advanced automotive and industrial production, such as Japan and South Korea do not have their own deposits. For this reason, it becomes important to introduce new technologies to reduce economic costs in the extraction of iron ore. The countries of the world, which have significant reserves of iron ore deposits, are looking for new technologies for enriching the extracted raw materials.

To date, almost 100 countries have such raw materials, potentially ready for development deposits. America (both North and South) accounts for approximately 267 billion tons, Russia - 100 billion tons, Asian countries have deposits of 110 billion tons, Australia and Oceania (together) - 82, in Africa about 50 billion tons, in Europe - 56 billion tons.

At the same time, in terms of the iron content in the ore, Brazil and Russia have the same percentage to global reserves. Each of these countries holds 18% of the reserves. The third place in this rating belongs to Australia with 14%, the fourth place is occupied by Ukraine - 11%, China has reserves of 9%, India - 5%. The United States has the smallest reserve in terms of iron content in ore from the current active developers of deposits, only 3%.

Processing of raw materials is carried out different ways: the countries of Western Europe and the USA, thanks to new scientific and technical methods for enriching poor raw materials, are achieving the final product best quality. They carry out the agglomeration of raw materials, but here it should be taken into account that such raw materials cannot be transported and must be processed on the domestic market.

In the issue of iron ore mining, producing countries that export iron ore pellets win, while mining technologies do not differ from generally accepted ones, but raw materials undergo preliminary processing. Iron ore pellets are easy to transport, and then on site, it is a raw material, thanks to modern technologies, is easily reduced to pure iron and enters the further industrial process.

One of the most valuable industrial minerals is iron ore. Deposits in Russia of this mineral are in abundance. No wonder our country is among the top five in terms of production of this raw material. Let's find out where the richest iron ore deposits in Russia are located.

The role of iron ore in industry

To begin with, let's find out what role it plays in Russia, more precisely, in its industrial production, what qualities it has.

Iron ore is natural mineral, which contains iron in such quantity that its extraction from the ore is cost-effective and expedient.

This mineral is the main raw material for the metallurgical industry. The main end product is iron and steel. The commodity form of the latter is called hire. Indirectly through this industry, mechanical engineering, automotive, shipbuilding and other sectors of the national economy depend on the supply of iron ore.

Therefore, every available iron ore deposit in Russia is so important for the development of the country. The economic regions of the country, especially the East Siberian, Central Black Earth, Ural, Northern and West Siberian regions, are largely tied to the processing of ore raw materials.

The main properties of iron, due to which it has found such widespread use in industry, are strength and heat resistance. No less important is that, unlike most other metals, the extraction and extraction of iron from ore is possible in large volumes and at relatively low cost.

Classification of iron ores

Iron ores have their own classification system.

Depending on the chemical composition ores are divided into the following types: oxides, hydroxides and carbonic salts.

The main types of iron ore minerals are: magnetite, limonite, goethite, siderite.

Iron ore deposits in Russia also have their own classification. Depending on the way the ore is deposited and its composition, they are divided into several groups. Of paramount importance are the following of them: sedimentary deposits, skarn, complex, quartzite.

Volumes of reserves and production

Now let's find out what volumes of iron ore are mined in Russia.

In terms of the volume of explored deposits of iron ore in terms of iron, the Russian Federation shares the first place with Brazil, having 18% of the total amount of world reserves. This is due to the fact that we have largest deposits iron ore - in Russia.

If we take into account not pure iron, but all ore with impurities, then in terms of reserves, the Russian Federation ranks second in the globe- from 16% of world reserves, second only to Ukraine in this indicator.

In terms of production of valuable minerals, Russia has long been ranked among the top five countries. Thus, in 2014, 105 million tons of iron ore were mined, which is 1,395 million tons less than the leader of this list, China, or 45 million tons less than the fourth in the list, India produces. At the same time, in terms of production, Russia is ahead of Ukraine, which follows it, by 23 million tons.

For many years, Russia has been in the top ten largest countries for the export of iron ore. In 2009, the country ranked sixth with an export volume of 21.7 million tons, dropped to ninth in 2013, and rose to fifth in 2015. According to this indicator, the unchanging world leader is Australia.

In addition, it should be said that two Russian metallurgical plants at once are among the ten world giants in the production of iron ore products. These are Evrazholding (production volume - 56,900 thousand tons / year) and Metalloinvest (44,700 thousand tons / year).

Main deposits

Now let's determine where the main iron ore deposits in Russia are located.

The largest iron ore basin in the country is KMA. The Kola ore region and deposits of Karelia have large reserves of ore. Rich in iron ore and the Urals. One of the largest in Russia is the West Siberian basin. Large deposits of iron ore in Russia are located in Khakassia and in the Altai Territory.

With the annexation of Crimea to Russia in 2014, another large iron ore basin appeared in the Russian Federation - the Kerch basin.

Deposits of the Kursk magnetic anomaly

The Kursk anomaly is not only the largest iron ore deposit in Russia, but also the undisputed world leader in terms of iron content. In terms of the amount of crude ore (30,000 million tons), this area is second only to one Bolivian deposit, the reserves of which are still being specified by specialists.

KMA is located on the territory of Kursk, Oryol and Belgorod regions and has a total area of ​​120,000 sq. km.

The basis of iron ore in this region are magnetite quartzites. It is with the magnetic properties of this mineral that the anomalous behavior of the magnetic needle in this area is connected.

The largest deposits of the KMA are Korobkovskoye, Novoyaltinskoye, Mikhailovskoye, Pogrometskoye, Lebedinskoye, Stoilenskoye, Prioskolskoye, Yakovlevskoye, Chernyanskoye, Bolshetroitskoye.

Deposits and Karelia

Significant iron ore deposits in Russia are located on the territory Murmansk region and the Republic of Karelia.

The total area of ​​the Kola ore district, located within the Murmansk region, is 114,900 sq. km. It should be noted that not only iron ore is mined here, but also many other ore minerals - nickel, copper, cobalt ores and apatites. Among the deposits of the region, Kovdorskoye and Olenogorskoye should be singled out. The main mineral is ferruginous quartzite.

The largest deposits of Karelia are Aganozerskoe, Kostomukshskoe, Pudozhgorskoe. True, the first of them is more specialized in mining

Ural deposits

The Ural Mountains are also rich in iron ore. The main production area is the Kachkanar group of deposits. The ore from this region has a relatively high titanium content. Mining is carried out in an open way. The total explored volumes of iron ore are approximately 7,000 million tons.

In addition, it should be said that it is in the Urals that the largest metallurgical plants in Russia are located, in particular Magnitogorsk and NTMK. But at the same time, it should be noted that a significant part of the former iron ore reserves has been exhausted, so they have to be imported to these enterprises also from other regions of the country.

West Siberian Basin

One of the largest iron ore regions in Russia is the West Siberian basin. It could be the largest deposit in the world (up to 393,000 million tons), but, according to exploration data, it is still inferior to the KMA and the El Mutun field in Bolivia.

The pool is located mainly on the territory of the Tomsk region and covers an area of ​​260,000 square meters. km. It should be noted that despite the huge volumes of ore reserves, the exploration of its deposits and mining are associated with a number of difficulties.

The largest deposits in the basin are Bachkarskoye, Chuzikskoye, Kolpashevskoye, Parbigskoye and Parabelskoye. The most significant and explored of them is the first in the list. It has an area of ​​1200 sq. km.

Deposits in Khakassia

Quite significant are the deposits in the Altai Territory and Khakassia. But if the development of the first of them is rather weak, then the Khakass ore reserves are actively mined. Of specific deposits, Abagazskoye (more than 73,000 thousand tons) and Abakanskoye (118,400 thousand tons) should be distinguished.

These deposits are of strategic importance for the development of the region.

Kerch basin

More recently, in connection with the annexation of the Crimea, the wealth of Russia was replenished with the Kerch basin, which is rich in iron ore. It is completely located on the territory of the Republic of Crimea, and has an area of ​​​​more than 250 square meters. km. The total ore reserves are estimated at 1,800 million tons. A feature of ore deposits in this region is that they are located mainly in troughs rocks.

Among the main deposits are Kyz-Aulskoye, Ocheret-Burunskoye, Katerlezskoye, Akmanayskoye, Eltigen-Ortelskoye, Novoselovskoye, Baksinskoye, Severnoye. Conventionally, all these deposits are combined into the northern and southern groups.

Other iron ore regions

In addition, there are a significant number of other iron ore deposits in Russia that are of lesser importance and volume than those listed above.

A large iron ore deposit is located in Kemerovo region. Its resources are used to provide raw materials for the West Siberian and Kuznetsk metallurgical plants.

IN Eastern Siberia Apart from Khakassia, there are iron ore deposits in Transbaikalia, in the Irkutsk region and in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. On Far East- in the future - may start major developments in Yakutia, Khabarovsk and Primorsky Territories, Amur Region. Yakutia is especially rich in iron.

However, this is far from a complete list of iron ore deposits that are available on the territory. In addition, one should not forget that some deposits may be poorly explored, underestimated in terms of volume, or not discovered at all at the moment.

Importance of the iron ore industry

Of course, the extraction of iron ore and its subsequent processing and export have quite high value for the economy of the whole country. Russia has the largest iron ore reserves in the world and is one of the leaders in their extraction and export.

We settled on the most important deposits iron ore in Russia, but this is far from full list. This mineral can be found in almost every economic region of the country. Choose (by the way, far from all of Russia's iron ore deposits are fully explored) any of them on the economic map - and you will definitely stumble upon such a site.

Today, this industry is of great interest as a promising direction.

Iron ore is a special mineral formation, including iron, as well as its compounds. An ore is considered iron ore if it contains this element in sufficient volumes to make it economically profitable to extract it.

The main variety of iron ore is magnetic iron ore. It contains almost 70% oxide and ferrous oxide. This ore is black or steel grey. on the territory of Russia, they are mined in the Urals. It is found in the depths of High, Grace and Kachkanar. In Sweden, it is found in the vicinity of Falun, Dannemor and Gellivar. In the US, this is Pennsylvania, and in Norway, Arendal and Persberg.

In ferrous metallurgy, iron ore products are divided into three types:

Separated iron ore (with low iron content);

Sinter ore (with an average iron content);

Pellets (crude iron-containing mass).

Morphological types

Iron ore deposits are considered rich if they contain more than 57% iron in their composition. Poor ores include those in which at least 26% iron. Scientists divided iron ore into two morphological types: linear and flat-like.

Iron ore linear type represents ore wedge-shaped bodies in the zones of bends and earth faults. This type is distinguished by a particularly high iron content (from 50 to 69%), but sulfur and phosphorus in such ore are contained in in large numbers.

Flat-like deposits occur on the tops of ferruginous quartzites, which represent a typical weathering crust.

Iron ore. Application and extraction

Rich iron ore is used to produce pig iron and is mainly used for smelting in converter and open-hearth production or directly for the reduction of iron. A small amount is used as a natural paint (ocher) and weighting agent for clay

The volume of world reserves of explored deposits is 160 billion tons, and they contain about 80 billion tons of iron. Iron ore is found in Ukraine, and Russia and Brazil have the largest reserves of pure iron.

The volume of world ore mining is growing every year. In most cases, iron ore is mined by an open method, the essence of which is that all the necessary equipment is delivered to the deposit, and a quarry is built there. The depth of the quarry is on average about 500 m, and its diameter depends on the features of the found deposit. After that, with the help of special equipment, iron ore is mined, stacked on vehicles adapted to transport heavy loads, and delivered from the quarry to enterprises that are engaged in processing.

The disadvantage of the open method is the ability to extract ore only at shallow depths. If it lies much deeper, you have to build mines. First, a trunk is made that resembles a deep well with well-fortified walls. Corridors, the so-called drifts, depart from the trunk in different directions. The ore found in them is blown up, and then its pieces are raised to the surface with the help of special equipment. The extraction of iron ore in this way is efficient, but involves serious danger and cost.

There is another method by which iron ore is mined. It is called SHD or borehole hydraulic production. Ore is extracted from underground in this way: a well is drilled, pipes with a hydraulic monitor are lowered into it and the rock is crushed with a very powerful water jet, which is then raised to the surface. The extraction of iron ore in this way is safe, but, unfortunately, inefficient. Only 3% of the ore can be mined this way, and 70% is mined using mines. However, the development of the SHD method is being improved, and there is a high probability that in the future this option will become the main one, displacing mines and quarries.

In the textbooks on the world around me and in the first, and in the second, and in the third, and in the fourth grade I study stones, ores and minerals. Often the teacher asks to prepare a message, report or presentation about some ore at the student's choice at home. One of the most popular and necessary in people's lives is iron ore. Let's talk about her.

Iron ore

I'll talk about iron ore. Iron ore is the main source of iron production. It is usually black in color, slightly shiny, turns red over time, very hard, attracts metal objects.

Almost all major iron ore deposits are found in rocks that were formed over a billion years ago. At that time, the earth was covered with oceans. The planet was rich in iron, and there was dissolved iron in the water. When the first organisms that create oxygen appeared in the water, it began to react with iron. The resulting substances settled in large quantities on the seabed, compressed, turned into ore. Over time, the water left, and now man is mining this iron ore.

Iron ore is also formed when high temperatures such as during a volcanic eruption. That is why its deposits are found in the mountains.

There are different types ores: magnetic iron ore, red and brown iron ore, iron spar.

Iron ore is found everywhere, but it is usually mined only where at least half of the ore is iron compounds. In Russia, iron ore deposits are located in the Urals, the Kola Peninsula, Altai, Karelia, but the largest iron ore deposit in Russia and in the world is the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly.

Ore deposits on its territory are estimated at 200 billion tons. This is about half of all iron ore reserves on the planet. It is located on the territory of the Kursk, Belgorod and Oryol regions. There is the world's largest quarry for the extraction of iron ore - Lebedinsky GOK. This is a huge hole. The quarry is 450 meters deep and about 5 km wide.

First, the ore is blown up to break it into pieces. Excavators at the bottom of the quarry pick up these pieces in huge dump trucks. Dump trucks load iron ore into special train cars, which take it out of the quarry and take it to the plant for processing.

At the plant, the ore is crushed, then sent to a magnetic drum. All iron sticks to the drum, and not iron is washed off with water. Iron is collected and melted into briquettes. Now you can smelt steel from it and make products.

Message prepared
4B grade student
Maxim Egorov

Iron ore began to be mined by man many centuries ago. Even then, the advantages of using iron became obvious.

Finding mineral formations containing iron is quite easy, since this element makes up about five percent. earth's crust. Overall, iron is the fourth most abundant element in nature.

It is impossible to find it in its pure form, iron is contained in a certain amount in many types of rocks. Iron ore has the highest iron content, the extraction of metal from which is the most economically profitable. The amount of iron contained in it depends on its origin, the normal proportion of which is about 15%.

Chemical composition

The properties of iron ore, its value and characteristics directly depend on its chemical composition. Iron ore may contain varying amounts of iron and other impurities. Depending on this, there are several types of it:

• very rich when the iron content in ores exceeds 65%;
• rich, the percentage of iron in which varies from 60% to 65%;
• medium, from 45% and above;
• poor, in which the percentage of useful elements does not exceed 45%.

The more side impurities in the composition of iron ore, the more energy is needed for its processing, and the less efficient is the production of finished products.

The composition of the rock may be a combination of various minerals, waste rock and other impurities, the ratio of which depends on its deposit.

Magnetic ores are distinguished by the fact that they are based on an oxide that has magnetic properties, but with strong heating they are lost. The amount of this type of rock in nature is limited, but the iron content in it may not be inferior to red iron ore. Outwardly, it looks like solid crystals of black and blue.

Spar iron ore is an ore rock based on siderite. Very often it contains a significant amount of clay. This type of rock is relatively hard to find in nature, which, given the small amount of iron content, makes it rarely used. Therefore, it is impossible to attribute them to industrial types of ores.

In addition to oxides, other ores based on silicates and carbonates are found in nature. The amount of iron content in the rock is very important for its industrial use, but the presence of useful by-products such as nickel, magnesium, and molybdenum is also important.

Application industries

The scope of iron ore is almost completely limited to metallurgy. It is used mainly for the smelting of pig iron, which is mined using open-hearth or converter furnaces. Today, cast iron is used in various spheres of human activity, including in most types of industrial production.

Various iron-based alloys are used to no lesser extent - steel has found the widest application due to its strength and anti-corrosion properties.

Cast iron, steel, and various other iron alloys are used in:

1. Mechanical engineering, for the production of various machine tools and apparatus.
2. Automotive industry, for the manufacture of engines, housings, frames, as well as other components and parts.
3. Military and missile industries, in the production of special equipment, weapons and missiles.
4. Construction, as a reinforcing element or erection of load-bearing structures.
5. Light and food industry, as containers, production lines, various units and devices.
6. Mining industry, as special machinery and equipment.

Iron ore deposits

The world's iron ore reserves are limited in quantity and location. The areas of accumulation of ore reserves are called deposits. Today, iron ore deposits are divided into:

1. Endogenous. They are characterized by a special location in the earth's crust, usually in the form of titanomagnetite ores. The forms and locations of such inclusions are varied, they can be in the form of lenses, layers located in the earth's crust in the form of deposits, volcano-like deposits, in the form of various veins and other irregular shapes.
2. Exogenous. This type includes deposits of brown iron ore and other sedimentary rocks.
3. Metamorphogenic. Which include quartzite deposits.

Deposits of such ores can be found throughout our planet. The largest number deposits are concentrated on the territory of the post-Soviet republics. Especially Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan.

Large iron reserves are countries such as Brazil, Canada, Australia, USA, India and South Africa. At the same time, almost every country on the globe has its own developed deposits, in case of a shortage of which, the breed is imported from other countries.

Enrichment of iron ores

As stated, there are several types of ores. The rich can be processed immediately after being extracted from the earth's crust, others must be enriched. In addition to the beneficiation process, ore processing includes several stages, such as sorting, crushing, separation and agglomeration.

To date, there are several main ways of enrichment:

1. Flushing.

It is used to clean ores from side impurities in the form of clay or sand, which are washed out using high-pressure water jets. This operation allows you to increase the amount of iron content in poor ore by about 5%. Therefore, it is used only in combination with other types of enrichment.

1. Gravity cleaning.

It is carried out using special types of suspensions, the density of which exceeds the density of the waste rock, but is inferior to the density of iron. Under the influence of gravitational forces, the side components rise to the top, and the iron sinks to the bottom of the suspension.

1. magnetic separation.

The most common enrichment method, which is based on various levels perception by the ore components of the impact of magnetic forces. Such separation can be carried out with dry rock, wet rock, or in an alternate combination of its two states.

For the processing of dry and wet mixtures, special drums with electromagnets are used.

1. Flotation.

For this method, crushed ore in the form of dust is lowered into water with the addition of a special substance (flotation agent) and air. Under the action of the reagent, iron joins the air bubbles and rises to the surface of the water, and the waste rock sinks to the bottom. Components containing iron are collected from the surface in the form of foam.