8 Countries that Produce the Most Iron in the World

The following list of countries represents the countries that produce the most iron in the world. Of course, it’s iron ore we’re talking about here. Precious rocks and minerals from which the iron ore is extracted have changed our world from the ground up. Without iron ore, we wouldn’t have had most of the things we have today. Just imagine a world without skyscrapers, long bridges, cars and other means of transportations, etc.

Oldest evidences of iron ore use date back to 1200 BC and modern-day Anatolia, Turkey. Newly discovered raw material at the time ushered the world into a new era. Iron age spread across the globe in order to last until the year 800 AD in Sub-Saharan Africa. It, however, only lasted until 500 BC in the epicenter of its origins. Needless to say, first civilizations that have gotten their hands on the precious iron have put themselves in a commanding position, technologically speaking. This also means they were much more capable in almost every single aspect than their ironless rivals, including warfare, agriculture, and trading for instance. Times have changed radically since then, but major iron ore exporters still happen to have the upper hand in today’s economy. Things aren’t as extreme as they were back in the day, but leading iron producers are still more or less developed countries

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We have gathered the relevant mine production data from United States Geological Survey and Iron Ore Facts, but we have consulted Statista as well. This means that only iron ore dug up in the world’s mines (mine production ore) has been taken into account. Most up to date data is for 2014, and that’s our reference year too. You can also check on this list of the biggest mines in the world: from Barrick Gold Corporation (USA) (ABX) to Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX). Note that most of these mines produce various types of minerals as single ore type rarely comes alone.

Finally, this list of 8 countries that produce the most iron in the world consists of two sets of data mashed up together. 2014 mine production iron ore has been compared between two of the aforementioned sources and averages have been calculated. All figures are expressed in thousands of metric tons gross weight. Finally, a few notes will appear here and there because it’s somewhat complicated gathering uniformed information for such a complex process as iron ore excavation – especially when it’s on a global scale.