Abstract: In recent years, with the continuous breakthrough in the iron ore prospecting work of western Africa, its resource potential has once again attracted the attention of international mining giants.China is the world's largest consumer of iron ore resources.Thus, the resource characteristics and mineralization regularity of western Africa iron ore are summarized, which could help understand the iron ore resources potential of western Africa and provide basis for the future collaborative deployment of resources.This paper systematically summarizes the iron ore metallogenic geological background and resource endowment characteristics in western Africa.Based on the information of 91 iron ore deposits in 10 major iron-producing countries of western Africa, we classified the genetic types of iron ore in western Africa into BIF(Banded Iron Formations) type, skarn type, magmatic type, laterite type, oolitic ore type.According to the tectonic units of iron ore, 20 metallogenic zones have been divided in western Africa.On this basis, we summarized the spatial distribution regularity and temporal distribution characteristics of iron ore in western Africa.The iron ore deposits in western Africa are widely distributed in space, but they have obvious cluster distribution characteristics.The distribution of different genetic types of iron ore deposits are also different.The BIF type iron ore deposits are mainly produced in the ancient shield area.The laterite iron ore deposits are associated with BIF, which are closely related to tropical climate.The skarn type iron ore deposits are mainly distributed in the boundary of the Pan-African active belt and sedimentary basin.The magmatic type iron ore deposits mainly occur in the gabbro with good differentiation.The oolitic iron ore deposits are mainly developed in the Meso-Cenozoic basins.