Iron is of tremendous historical importance as it can be viewed as a principal catalyst in the mid-17th century Industrial Revolution. From bridges, skyscrapers and railways, to ships, cars, electrical power lines, telephone networks and even paperclips - iron is the mainstay of our fast developing modern world. Accordingly, Iron Mining Group works diligently to transform this raw mineral resource into the essential ingredients of people’s everyday lives. Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be extracted (economically). Roughly 98% of all ore shipped worldwide is used in the production of iron or steel, which is one of the most useful metals in the world. In its final form as steel, iron is used 20 times more than all other metals combined. Steel is strong, durable and extremely versatile. The many different kinds of steel consist almost entirely of iron with the addition of small amounts of carbon (usually less than 1%) and of other metals to form different alloys (e.g. stainless steel).

Steel is created by smelting iron ore in a blast furnace to separate the iron from the other mineral impurities naturally present, known as the slag. The resulting liquid iron settles to the bottom of the furnace and cools into a bed of sand, resulting in an intermediate material known as pig iron. Notably, To create one metric ton of pig iron, steel producers start with approximately 2 tonnes of ore.

World resources are estimated to exceed 800 billion tons of crude ore containing more than 230 billion tons of iron, with the leading producing companies in order being China, Australia, and Brazil. Worldwide, 50 countries produce iron ore, but 96% of this ore is produced by only 15 of those countries. As such, Iron Mining Group believes that there exists a unique opportunity to partner with, acquire, and consolidate small to midsize regional mines and reserve properties.

Iron Mining Group is supremely optimistic about the outlook for the iron ore market in the coming years as the global economy continues its recovery in the medium and longer term. This outlook is buoyed by the strength of China which weathered the financial crisis better than other major markets and has shown increasing demand for steel and its underlying raw materials resulting from demographic shifts towards urbanization. The near future will see steel consumption stimulated by federal stimulus measures focused on infrastructure development, while longer term growth is expected to be driven increasingly by urban development initially in coastal provinces and later spreading inland to the rural economy. This strong demand leaves China more reliant than ever on low cost iron ore imports.