5 Reasons Why Most People Invest the Beneficiation of Iron Ore

We all know that final goal of iron ore beneficiation is to get iron concentrate which is widely used in everywhere. Nowadays, apart from many big iron ore companies like Vale, BHP, Rio Tinto, Ternium, etc., more and more individuals are joining them to get profit from iron ore mining and beneficiation. Here are five reasons that you may want to know why most people choose to invest beneficiation of iron ore.

1. Global iron ore resources are abundant and widely distributed

Iron ore resources are found on all seven continents of the world, and the global amount of iron ore resources has reached 818 billion tons. There are 348 large and super-large iron ore deposits, accounting for 19% of the total number, and 79.4% of the total iron resources. There are 137 iron ore deposits with a scale of more than 1 billion tons, accounting for 7.4% of the total number, and accounting for 68.8% of the total iron resources.

Iron ore produced in Brazil, Australia, South Africa, India, and other countries is mostly hematite, and it is not only with of high grade of more than 55% but without harmful impurities.

At the same time, these countries have many large and super large iron ore mines, and the quality of iron ore produced is relatively stable.

1. Easy access to mining rights

Compared with other rare mineral resources, iron ore, because of its abundant reserves, is easier to help people obtain mining rights. As long as providing complete certificates, such as mine production license, mine safety production license, environmental guarantee, etc., people can get mining qualification. Of course, each country’s policies are different, so are the real situation. In general, most governments are relatively supportive of private exploration. Because the contribution of iron ore mining to economic development cannot be ignored.

1. Easy to set up an iron ore beneficiation plant

Iron ore, because of different natures and grades, is processed by different ways including magnetic iron ore beneficiation, weakly magnetic iron ore beneficiation, and commensal iron ore beneficiation. Magnetic separator is the key machine to process iron ore no matter it is high grade or low grade. A complete iron ore beneficiation plant includes crushers, ball milling machine, magnetic separator, and drying machine.

4. Low investment and low cost

Compared with the cost of other ore beneficiation plants, iron ore processing plant cost is lower because in most time, it does not need complex beneficiation equipment. For example, gold ore with low grade may need both gravity separator and flotation separator, or together with magnetic separator. One of the reasons why people Invest the iron ore, is because simple process and high concentrate recovery rate.

5. Good market prospects

According to MySteel’s balance sheet, the gap between iron ore supply and demand in 2020 reached -11.3 million tons, of which nine months were destocking, showing a tight balance pattern.

In the second half of the year, the supply side gradually improved, but after the recovery of the Covid-19, the demand increased significantly, and the gap between supply and demand changed from negative to positive.

From the point of view of the average price of a month, from January to November this year, the average price of the 62% Australian fan index of Mysteel104, last year the average price of 93.2, and the average price increased by 11.59% month-on-month.

In the first half of the year, the average price was basically the same as that of the same period last year, while in the second half of the year, the average price was much higher than that of the same period last year.

In the past 11 months, the average price was higher than that of the same period last year in 6 months. Judging by the current price trend, the average price in December was still higher than that of the same period last year.