Structural characteristics of iron ore resources identified to date in China.

On the basis of 2005 Iron Ore Mineral Resouces Database of China, this paper has summarized the general structural characteristics of all iron resources identified to date in China, such as deposit type, ore type, ore quality, mineral combination, exploration level and burial depth. Conclusions that has been reached are: major deposit types of iron deposits in China are sedimentary-metamorphic type, magmatic type, contact alteration-hydrothermal type and volcanic type. Most of the iron deposits identified to date have single mineral resource of which iron is the major mineral resource. Although the ore grade is relatively low, ores are dominated by magnetite ore and vanadium-titanium magnetite ore, which are easy to be milled and concentrated. For those deposits where exploration has been done thoroughly, the risk for exploitation and development is very low. For those under-explored ones, technical and economic mining conditions are advantageous, and there remains further potential for deeper area propecting.