# Talk:Iron

Is this statistic reliable and/or up-to-date? The citation at the end of the paragraph is from Greenwood & Earnshaw (1997), which I (have a feeling) was a reprint or reissue from the 1980s - and it's unclear if it attaches to the whole paragraph or just the general info at the end? 
There is an undated inline comment in the article reading: "The UGSG gives a production of iron including recycling with 998Mt, while aluminium (39Mt), copper (18Mt), zinc (11Mt) and lead (8.6Mt) add up to 77 Mt, all including recycling. This more like 8% than 5." Someone has queried this before? 
Looking at the current USGS Iron & Steel MCS page (https://www.usgs.gov/centers/national-minerals-information-center/iron-and-steel-statistics-and-information), it says: "Iron and steel comprise about 95 percent of all the tonnage of metal produced annually in the United States and the world." But there is no date on the page.
It seems reasonable to query the figure, so I have added a cn for now. 45154james (talk) 09:46, 15 June 2025 (UTC)

I have a problem with the claim that Fe is most abundant element "on Earth". Mostly that it requires understanding that "on" means "of" here, which is unlikely to be what most readers think. I guess English is a bit awkward in articulating this. Why not lead with something like "Iron is, by mass, the fourth most abundant element in Earth's crust, after O, Si and Al, at 5.6%, and most abundant element in the entire Earth at an estimated 32%."

Being even more nit-picky, it is NOT true that "extracting Fe from ore" REQUIRES kilns NOR temperatures of 1500C+. There are both electrochemical and other chemical methods to "extract" iron from its ores at or (much) near(er) room temperature.

Not to say these methods are practical or economically viable, nor are they (as far as I know) less energy intensive, but the energy required can be chemical or (partially) electric rather than thermal. I'm not clear why the editors didn't just claim "iron is extracted..." rather than the false "iron requires ...".98.22.50.44 (talk) 08:17, 29 June 2025 (UTC)

Section Earth's crust, third paragraph "The banded iron formations were laid down in the time between 3,700 million years ago and 1,800 million years ago." ought to be a bit more explicit that the laying down occurred at the ocean floor. Maybe someone with access to the protected article could make this edit... 2001:56A:F0E9:9B00:7D90:EAFC:1427:7B22 (talk) 04:03, 1 August 2025 (UTC)JustSomeWikiReader

It has been a while since this article has been reviewed, so I took a look and noticed the following:

There are uncited statements, including entire paragraphs.
At almost 10,000 words, this article is WP:TOOBIG per WP:SS. I recommend that an editor review the article and spin out or remove information that is too detailed.
Should this article go to WP:GAR? Z1720 (talk) 05:03, 8 November 2025 (UTC)


### Iron
Article (edit | visual edit | history) ·  Article talk (edit | history) ·  Watch • Watch article reassessment page • Most recent review
Result pending 
There are uncited statements, including entire paragraphs. At almost 10,000 words, this article might be WP:TOOBIG per WP:SS. The article should summarise information more effectively or spin out information that is too detailed. Z1720 (talk) 01:12, 14 November 2025 (UTC)