Any geologist on yhis board?Second question: What type of Iron in Zone claims?
Iron ore
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metalliciron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red. The iron itself is usually found in the form of magnetite (Fe3O4), hematite (Fe2O3), goethite (FeO(OH)), limonite (FeO(OH).n(H2O)) or siderite (FeCO3). Hematite is also known as "natural ore", a name which refers to the early years of mining, when certain hematite ores containing up to 66% iron could be fed directly into iron-making blast furnaces. Iron ore is the raw material used to make pig iron, which is one of the main raw materials to make steel. 98% of the mined iron ore is used to make steel.[1] Indeed, it has been argued that iron ore is "more integral to the global economy than any other commodity, except perhaps oil”.[2]
================================================================
Types of iron ore
The major rock types mined for the production of metallic iron are massive hematite, pisolitic goethite/limonite, which provide a 'high-grade' ore, and banded metasedimentary ironstone, magnetite-rich metasomatite, to a much lesser degree, rocks rich in siderite, rocks rich in chamosite which provide a 'low-grade' ore.
High-grade ore
Currently most of the iron ore mined in the world comes from large deposits of massive hematite rock formed by the in situ enrichment of a protore already enriched in iron, most commonly a banded iron formation (BIF).
Two of the best known Australian examples of massive hematite deposits are Tom Price and Mount Whaleback in the Hamersley Range, Western Australia. Another type of high-grade deposit is pisolitic limonite/goethite ore formed in ancient river channels, e.g. Yandicoogina, Hamersley Basin, Western Australia.
The consensus model for formation of massive hematite ore is enrichment by the passage of fluids, which remove the non-iron-bearing minerals (dominantly chert), to a much lesser extent add iron minerals. There are several variants of this model with the most accepted being enrichment by supergene processes. Recent models suggest enrichment by mass sideways and upward migration of dominantly superheated meteoric waters perhaps with a minor magmatic component.
High-grade ore generally has a cut off grade of ~>60% Fe. Historically it has provided a direct feed to smelters either as a raw lump or fines, also in a processed form such as sinter or pellets. There are emerging markets for new varieties of feedstock. Examples include sintered iron carbide and 'DRI' ore, which is natural ore with Fe >69% and low levels of specific trace elements suitable as feed to 'direct reduction' smelters.
Low-grade ore
Low-grade ore is a term applied to iron-rich rocks with cut-off grades in the range of 25–30% Fe. It was the main supply of iron ore for many centuries of the World's early history of production of iron. Since the 1950s North America's main supply has been low-grade ore.
The dominant economic iron mineral in low-grade ore is magnetite. The ore may be easily beneficiated by a process know as wet-magnetic separation - this process has been employed for many decades in North America.
BIF with hematite as the dominant iron mineral may also be beneficiated through wet hydrometallurgical processes though it rarely is due to economic constraints.
https://outernode.pir.sa.gov.au/minerals/geology/minerals_mines_and_quarries/commodities/iron_ore