Iron
Ore
Lump, fines, concentrate and pellets supplied to steel mills and smelters worldwide — from Pakistan, Sudan and other origins, with independent sampling and analysis at load port before the cargo moves.
Looking for an iron ore supplier? DeltaGBS exports lump ore, sinter fines, concentrate and DR-grade pellets at 58–67% Fe from Pakistan, Sudan and other origins, with independent SGS sampling to ISO 3082, screening analysis and full assay certificates before the cargo moves.
into making steel
the market prices against
2597, 2598, 4687 and 4689
or container consignments
What Iron Ore Actually Is
Iron ore is rock from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. Iron is the fourth most abundant element in the Earth's crust, but almost all of it is locked in silicate minerals that would take a prohibitive amount of energy to smelt. Industry therefore works the rarer iron oxide minerals, where the iron is already part-way to metal.
What a buyer is really purchasing is contained iron, minus the cost of everything else in the rock. Silica and alumina become slag the furnace has to melt and remove. Phosphorus makes finished steel brittle in the cold. Sulphur makes it crack when hot-worked. Moisture is weight you pay freight on and get no iron from.
That is why an assay matters more than a headline price. Two cargoes quoted at the same dollar figure can be worth very different amounts once the penalty elements are counted.
Iron Content By Mineral
| Mineral | Formula | Iron content |
|---|---|---|
| MagnetiteMagnetic — easily concentrated | Fe₃O₄ | 72.4 % |
| HematiteThe principal ore mineral | Fe₂O₃ | 69.9 % |
| GoethiteCommon in weathered deposits | FeO(OH) | 62.9 % |
| LimoniteHydrated — carries moisture | FeO(OH)·nH₂O | ≈ 55 % |
| SideriteCarbonate — needs calcining | FeCO₃ | 48.2 % |
From Orebody To Steel
Iron ore is the first link in the steel chain. Understanding the next few links is what tells you whether a cargo suits your plant — fine ore is useless to a mill with no sinter plant, and high-silica lump is expensive to one already fighting slag volume.
The Grades We Supply
One product, sold by grade and size. The market prices against a 62% Fe benchmark, with bonuses above and penalties below — and separate adjustment scales for silica, alumina, phosphorus and moisture.
| Grade | Form | Typical Fe | Typical SiO₂ / Al₂O₃ | Furnace Route |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Premium ConcentrateBeneficiated magnetite | Concentrate / pellet feed | 65 – 67 % | 3–7 % / < 3 % | Pelletising, DRI |
| High GradeDirect shipping ore | Lump | 63 – 65 % | 4–7 % / < 2 % | Blast furnace direct charge |
| Benchmark GradeThe market reference | Lump or fines | 62 % | 5–9 % / < 2.5 % | Blast furnace, sinter blend |
| Standard FinesSinter feed | Fines 0–10 mm | 60 – 62 % | 6–10 % / < 3 % | Sinter plant |
| Medium GradeBlending material | Lump or fines | 58 – 60 % | 8–12 % / < 3.5 % | Sinter blend, blending stock |
| Low Grade / Run of MineFor beneficiation | ROM, crushed | 45 – 58 % | By deposit | Buyer's own beneficiation |
| PelletsFired, 9–16 mm | BF grade / DR grade | 64 – 67 % | Low; tumble index reported | Blast furnace, DRI |
Lump Ore
Direct charge material sized 10–40 mm or 10–60 mm. It goes straight into the blast furnace with no agglomeration, which is why it carries a premium over fines of the same iron content.
- Sized to your screening tolerance
- Fines fraction declared, not averaged away
- Low decrepitation preferred
Fines / Sinter Feed
Sized 0–10 mm. It cannot be charged directly and must be sintered first, so it only suits mills with a sinter plant. Moisture is reported as shipped and again at discharge draft survey.
- 0–10 mm, silica to your blend limit
- Moisture declared at load port
- The bulk of world seaborne trade
Concentrate
Beneficiated material for deposits whose run-of-mine grade will not meet a mill's burden. Magnetite concentrates typically grade above 65% Fe and run low in phosphorus, alumina and titania.
- 65–67% Fe achievable
- Low silica and alumina
- Pellet feed and sinter feed grades
Pellets
Fired agglomerates at 9–16 mm for blast furnace and DRI duty. Here the physical properties — tumble index, cold crushing strength, reducibility — matter as much as the headline iron figure.
- BF grade and DR grade
- Tumble index and CCS reported
- Consistent size, low fines generation
Analysis From Recent Cargoes
Transcribed from independent and mill laboratory certificates on cargoes we have handled — Sudanese lump and fines from one consignment, and a Pakistani cargo sampled by SGS at Karachi. These show what the material actually assayed. They are not a guaranteed specification.
| Analyte | Method | Sudan — Lump | Sudan — Fines | Pakistan — Sinter Feed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Iron (Fe)TFe, dry basis | ISO 2597-1 | 63.49 % | 61.39 % | 51.40 % |
| Silica (SiO₂) | ISO 2598-1 | 6.99 % | 9.66 % | 11.31 % |
| Alumina (Al₂O₃) | ISO 46881-1 | 0.72 % | 0.69 % | 2.03 % |
| Phosphorus (P)Cold shortness in steel | ISO 4687-1 | 0.054 % | 0.099 % | 0.11 % |
| Sulphur (S)Hot shortness in steel | ISO 4689 | 0.032 % | 0.037 % | 0.46 % |
| Lime (CaO) | Mill QC lab | 0.48 % | 0.37 % | Not reported |
| Magnesia (MgO) | Mill QC lab | 0.14 % | 0.18 % | Not reported |
| Titania (TiO₂) | Mill QC lab | 1.56 % | 1.82 % | Not reported |
| Vanadium (V₂O₅) | Mill QC lab | 0.18 % | — | Not reported |
| Manganese (MnO) | Mill QC lab | 0.10 % | 0.12 % | Not reported |
| Moisture (H₂O)Freight you pay, iron you don't get | As shipped | 0.50 % | 0.50 % | Declared per cargo |
Screening Analysis
Performed by SGS on the same composite sample as the Pakistan column above. Sizing is agreed per contract — this is what one shipment actually screened at.
| Fraction | Result | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 0 – 10 mm | 2.64 % | Fines — needs sintering |
| 10 – 60 mm | 81.61 % | Direct charge lump |
| + 60 mm | 15.75 % | Oversize — crushing on request |
Read with the drawing: the deck apertures on the right are the 60 mm and 10 mm cut points that produced these three fractions.
How This Cargo Screened
How The Numbers Are Produced
Every figure above comes from a chain of custody that starts at the ship's rail, not from a supplier's brochure.
Sampled To ISO 3082
An independent inspectorate takes increments at regular intervals throughout loading against an agreed sampling plan — not a grab sample at the end, which is how disputes start.
Five-Way Sample Split
Composites are split five ways: two to the laboratory, one to you, and two sealed and retained by the inspectorate for three months, so a disputed result can be re-run on retained material.
Umpire Analysis On Dispute
Where load-port and discharge-port results differ beyond the contractual tolerance, a named third laboratory settles the assay and the price adjustment follows that figure.
Reading The Screening Result
A three-fraction split only tells you something once it is tied to what each fraction does downstream. These are the points that come up on nearly every cargo.
Oversize Isn't Waste
The 15.75% over 60 mm on this cargo isn't rejected material — it is crushed to size on request, at an agreed rate, before loading or on discharge. Flag your furnace's hard top-size limit up front and it is quoted and handled separately.
The Fines Fraction Sets Your Route
2.64% under 10 mm on a lump cargo is unremarkable and needs no sinter plant. A parcel sold as sinter feed runs the other way — mostly under 10 mm by design — so confirm which product you were quoted before comparing screen results across suppliers.
Tolerance Is A Contract Term
Sizing isn't certified to one fixed number the way Fe or moisture is. The acceptable range for each fraction is agreed and written into the contract before loading — not inferred after the fact from a past shipment's result.
Ask For Both Certificates Together
The screening report and the chemical assay reference the same lot and the same sample composite, and are issued by the inspectorate side by side — request both, not the assay alone, so sizing and chemistry are read against one shipment.
Where We Source
In iron ore, freight is a large share of landed cost — so the right origin is usually the one closest to your discharge port carrying a grade your burden can take. We work several rather than pushing whichever we happen to hold.
PakistanCORE ORIGIN
Hematite and magnetite deposits at Kalabagh in Punjab, Chiniot, Nokundi in Balochistan and Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Extraction is still developing relative to the resource, which makes it a competitive origin for buyers across the Gulf and South Asia.
- Kalabagh, Chiniot, Nokundi, Kohat
- SGS Karachi sampling at load port
- Short sea legs to Gulf and South Asia
SudanCORE ORIGIN
Reserves in the Wadi Halfa and Baljrawih areas are assessed at around two billion tonnes, with further deposits in the Red Sea Hills, Mount Abu Tolo in South Kordofan and West Darfur. The Sudanese lump and fines assays above came from this origin.
- Wadi Halfa, Baljrawih, Red Sea Hills
- Lump at 63%+ Fe, low phosphorus
- Red Sea loading for Asian buyers
Africa
Higher-grade hematite from West and Southern Africa on Supramax parcels, for mills able to take larger lots and wanting to lift the iron content of a blend.
- South Africa, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mauritania
- Supramax and Panamax parcels
- Direct shipping grades
South America
Brazil is the world's second-largest producer after Australia. High-grade fines, concentrate and pellet feed where a mill needs to raise blend grade or cut silica and alumina.
- Brazil, Peru, Chile
- 65%+ Fe concentrate and pellet feed
- Low-alumina blending material
Middle East & Asia
Regional lump and fines with short sea legs into Gulf and South Asian mills, plus the option of container shipment for trial parcels and smaller consignments.
- Oman, Iran transit, India, Indonesia
- Container parcels for trial cargoes
- Fast turnaround on short transits
Origin Selection Support
Give us your discharge port, burden chemistry and monthly tonnage, and we will work landed cost across origins — including freight and demurrage exposure — rather than quoting one and calling it the market.
- Landed cost modelled per origin
- Trial cargo before term commitment
- Australia and other origins on request
How Ore Cargoes Are Contracted
Ore trades on different terms from finished steel. These four points need agreeing before a cargo can be fixed.
Specification & Rejection
Guaranteed Fe, maximum silica, alumina, phosphorus, sulphur and moisture — plus the rejection limits at which you may refuse the cargo outright.
Price Adjustment Scale
Bonus and penalty per unit above or below base grade, so an off-spec cargo is repriced by formula rather than argued over after discharge.
Weight & Sampling
Draft survey at load and discharge, sampling to ISO 3082, retained samples sealed, and a named umpire laboratory for disputes.
Payment & Laytime
Provisional payment against load-port documents with final settlement on discharge assay, plus agreed laytime and demurrage rates.
Send Your Burden Spec
Tell us the grade, tonnage, discharge port and the assay tolerances your furnace needs. We will come back with the origins that can meet it, an indicative landed cost and a sampling plan.
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