The iron ore industry looks set to
regain its former glory, and growth numbers coming out of China reinforce this
outlook.
Iron
is the most omnipresent metal: it is used to build the tallest skyscrapers and
the smallest sewing needles; the cars on the road, and the cutlery on your
dinner table. It makes up 5% of the earth’s crust, and is the second most
abundant metal after aluminum.
Iron production first began in the Middle Bronze
Age, and the first blast furnaces had been set up as early as the 1st century
AD. As scientific advancements shed more light on its structural properties,
and as mass production made it cheaper to produce, it became the material of
choice in the production of many new products, especially in construction
activities. For example, the first iron bridge was built in England in 1779,
merely 70 years after the first coke-fired blast furnace started producing cast
iron. Read
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