What are the main end uses for iron ore, and magnetite in particular?
There are good markets for magnetite around the world. The iron ore from the Pearson Project, if it proves commercially feasible, would be milled into a saleable iron concentrate that could be used in a number of iron and steel-making facilities, mainly in the Pacific Rim. Magnetite can be used either in a reducing blast furnace to make high-grade steel in a single stage, or it can be converted to “reduced iron” pellets that can be used in a melting furnace. Melting furnaces typically are used to re-cycle scrap iron to produce certain steel products. High-purity concentrate such as that proposed from the Pearson project is critical to managing the quality of the recycled iron.
