Iron Ore

Iron Ore is a common ore found in every map. It looks like a piece of silver metal coming out of the ground. Iron Ore is the key mineral for Steel and then makes it a vital mineral for most metal products. You will need a Surface Mine to extract it from the ground.
==History==
Hard meteor iron was already used in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, India and Asia Minor and was worked to create  jewellery and tools. It replaced bronze and thereby introduced a seperate age. The Hittites and Indians are considered the inventors of iron ore (circa 1510 BC). In the Middle Ages, craftsmen changed from wrought to moulded iron.\nThe first blast-furnace was constructed by the Spaniards around 700 AD. From 1728 on, the metal was worked into sheets by rolling - a revolutionary technique discovered by the Englishman Henry Cort. Towards the end of the 18th century, melting-pots gradually came into use for the production of steel. They were finally replaced by blast-furnaces in 1902.
==Did You Know That?==
Since 1902, steel works have used blast furnaces for transforming iron ore into solid metal. In this huge melting-pot, pure iron is extracted from a mixture of iron ore and coke through a smelting process. All over the world, new iron resources are constantly being discovered. In mountainous regions, the raw metal is exploited by strip mining. Normally, tapped pig iron is made into wrought and cast iron, the demand for which gradually increased over the first decade of the twentieth century.
==Products That Require Iron Ore==
Name:	Year	Produced In:	Can Be Sold In:	Requires:
Steel	1900	Steelworks 	None 	1 Iron Ore
Category:Surface Mining
Category:1900
Category:Steelworks
Category:1st Degree Material