Iron is the base mineral or say base metal for industrial development of modem world. It is one of the highest used mineral in the world. It is used in making things as small as pins to gigantic machines, cars, trucks, ships railway, bridges, buildings and weapons. Iron is cheap, strong as well as durable and is available in almost all the countries.

One of the fine properties of iron is that it can mix with other minerals easily and give new useful minerals. For example, it easily gets mixed with carbon to produce steel. Owing to its abundant availability, extremely wide use and ease of getting mixed with other minerals, it is considered as an important mineral. Iron is found in impure on form on the earth. So, it is mixed with coke and lime and heated in large furnaces for refining. The pure iron thus obtained is known as pig iron. Four types of iron ore found in India, They are:

1. Hematite
2. Magnetite
3. Limonite and
4. Siderite.

Iron producing states: Karnataka produces maximum amount of iron ore in India. It is also obtained from Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh in good quantity. Its ore is also found in Goa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. Iron is one of the highest used mineral in the world. It is used in the making things as small as small pins to gigantic machines, cars, trucks, ships, railway, bridges, buildings and weapons. It is also used to make steel, manganese steel, etc.