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History of iron

How did our relationship with it begin and change?

People first used iron from meteorites more than 5,000 years ago and learned to smelt it from ore by about 1200 BCE. Coke, the Bessemer converter and the oxygen furnace made it cheap. World ore output has more than doubled since 2000, as China's steelmaking grew.

Last updated 3 October 2026.

Discovery and name

Iron has no discoverer. It was known in prehistory. Old Stone Age people used finely ground hematite, an iron oxide, as body paint1.

The first iron metal that people used came from meteorites. The oldest surviving iron objects are beads from Egypt, from the 4th millennium BCE. They are made of meteoritic iron, which contains nickel2. Geoscience Australia dates the first use of meteoritic iron by Egyptians and Sumerians to around 4000 BCE1. Nineteen meteoritic iron objects were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, who died in 1323 BCE. They include a dagger with a gold hilt2. Metal from meteorites was rare and probably very expensive2.

The symbol Fe comes from the Latin word for iron, ferrum1. The English word “iron” probably comes from an old root meaning “blood”, for the color of its oxides3. The mineral name hematite comes from the Greek for “blood-stone”1.

Iron was the first element known to be essential for people. In 1681 a physician used iron to treat pale, tired patients with anemia1.

How our use changed

Smelting iron from ore spread slowly. By the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, people made iron from ore in a region from Greece to India2. Iron working in India dates from about 1800 to 1000 BCE1. In China, cast iron appears in the 5th century BCE2. In Europe, iron use became widespread in the 14th century, when early blast furnaces began to replace forges1.

In 1709 Abraham Darby made iron with coke instead of charcoal at Coalbrookdale, England2. In 1828 James Beaumont Neilson patented the hot blast, which made blast furnaces more efficient2. In 1855 Henry Bessemer introduced his converter for mass-producing cheap steel2. In 1952 the basic oxygen process started at the Voest-Alpine works2. In 2025 oxygen furnaces made 69% of the world’s crude steel, and electric arc furnaces made 30%4.

World output of usable ore was about 116 million tonnes in 1905, 514 million in 1960 and 969 million in 20005. It was 2.6 billion tonnes in 20256. A larger share of it now crosses borders. Trade rose from 54% of output in 2004 to 70% in 2024, as China bought more ore abroad7. In November 2025 the Simandou project in Guinea started operations8.

Before the Common Era

  1. c. 3500 BCE

    Culture

    People in Egypt make beads from meteoritic iron-nickel, the oldest surviving iron objects. 2

  2. c. 1323 BCE

    Culture

    Tutankhamun is buried with nineteen objects of meteoritic iron, among them a dagger with a gold hilt. 2

  3. c. 1200 BCE

    Industry

    By the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, people smelt iron from ore from Greece to India. 2

  4. c. 500 BCE

    Industry

    Metalworkers in China make cast iron. 2

Before 1500

  1. c. 1350

    Industry

    Iron use spreads in Europe as smelting furnaces, the forerunners of blast furnaces, replace forges. 1

1600s

  1. 1681

    Health

    A physician treats pale, tired patients with anemia using iron. Iron is the first element known to be essential for people. 1

1700s

  1. 1709

    Industry

    Abraham Darby smelts iron with coke at Coalbrookdale, England, instead of charcoal. 2

1800s

  1. 1828

    Science

    James Beaumont Neilson patents the hot blast, which makes blast furnaces more efficient. 2

  2. 1855

    Industry

    Henry Bessemer introduces his converter, the first way to mass-produce cheap steel. 2

1900s

  1. 1952

    Industry

    The basic oxygen process starts at the Voest-Alpine works. 2

  2. 1997

    Health

    The US requires unit-dose packs for iron supplements. Deaths of young children from iron poisoning fall from 29 in the ten years before to 1 in the five years after. 9

2000s

  1. 2010

    Industry

    World iron ore output reaches 1.87 billion tonnes, up from 1.32 billion in 2005. 5

  2. 2012

    Law and policy

    Australia's Minerals Resource Rent Tax on iron ore and coal profits starts. 10

  3. 2014

    Conflict

    Guinea says it will cancel BSG Resources' Simandou rights, after a state committee reports evidence of corrupt practices. BSGR denies any wrongdoing. 11

  4. 2015

    Disaster

    The Fundão tailings dam near Mariana, Brazil, fails. Nineteen people die and the village of Bento Rodrigues is destroyed. 12

  5. 2018

    Trade

    The United States puts a national security tariff on steel imports under section 232. 13

  6. 2019

    Disaster

    The Córrego do Feijão tailings dam at Brumadinho, Brazil, fails. 270 people die. 14

  7. 2020

    Culture

    Rio Tinto destroys the Juukan rock shelters in Western Australia, with evidence of human life going back 46,000 years. 15

  8. 2022

    Conflict

    After Russia invades Ukraine, Ukrainian iron ore exports by sea stop. 16

  9. 2025

    Law and policy

    President Trump approves Nippon Steel's purchase of US Steel under a national security agreement. President Biden had blocked it in January. 17

  10. 2025

    Industry

    Simandou in Guinea starts operations. It is planned to export up to 120 million tonnes a year. 8

  11. 2025

    Conflict

    The High Court in London finds BHP liable under Brazilian law for the Fundão dam failure. 18

  12. 2026

    Law and policy

    The EU starts charging for the carbon emitted to make imported iron and steel (CBAM). 19

  13. 2026

    Conflict

    A Brazilian federal appeal court convicts Samarco and three former managers over the Fundão dam failure. 20

Sources

  1. 1

    Geoscience Australia, 2023. Iron (Australian mineral facts) , Properties; Formation; Resources; Mining; Processing.

    Ore minerals and their iron content, banded iron formations, Hamersley Province deposit types and grades, processing.

    • Paleolithic Man used finely ground haematite as body paint
    • Around 4000 BC, the Egyptians and Sumerians first used iron from meteorites to make beads, ornaments, weapons and tools
    • Chemical symbol Fe, comes from the Latin word for iron ferrum
    • hematite (from the Greek word meaning ‘blood-stone’)
    • Iron was the first element to be recognised as essential for people. A physician in 1681 successfully used iron to treat patients who were pale, lacking in energy and suffering from anaemia
    • archaeological evidence indicates iron working in India occurred around 1800 to 1000 BC
    • its use only became widespread in the 14th century, when smelting furnaces (the forerunner of blast furnaces) began to replace forges
    • Iron was the first element to be recognised as essential for people. A physician in 1681 successfully used iron to treat patients
  2. 2

    Wikipedia contributors, 2026. History of ferrous metallurgy .

    Dates of early meteoritic iron, smelting, Chinese cast iron, coke smelting, Bessemer and basic oxygen steelmaking.

    • The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt , [ 1 ] were made from meteoritic iron-nickel
    • Nineteen meteoric iron objects were found in the tomb of Egyptian ruler Tutankhamun , who died in 1323 BC, including an iron dagger with a golden hilt
    • Meteoric iron is very rare, and the metal was probably very expensive, perhaps more expensive than gold
    • by the end of the 2nd millennium BC, iron was being produced from iron ores in the region from Greece to India
    • Archaeological evidence of cast iron appears in 5th-century BC China
    • he leased the blast furnace at Coalbrookdale in 1709. There, he made iron using coke
    • hot blast , patented by James Beaumont Neilson in Scotland in 1828
    • The problem of mass-producing cheap steel was solved in 1855 by Henry Bessemer, with the introduction of the Bessemer converter
    • the basic oxygen process was introduced at the Voest-Alpine works in 1952
    • The earliest surviving prehistoric iron artifacts, from the 4th millennium BC in Egypt
  3. 3

    Wikipedia contributors, 2026. Iron , Etymology.

    Origin of the English name. Used only for this; no number rests on it.

    • Naming probably from a PIE root meaning ‘blood’, for the color of its oxides
  4. 4

    World Steel Association (worldsteel), the steel industry's association, 2026. World Steel in Figures 2026 , Sustainability indicators; Top 50 companies; Major steel-producing countries; Production by process; Pig iron; DRI; Iron ore 2024; Steel use by sector (p. 30).

    Crude steel, pig iron and DRI output by country, top companies, iron ore trade, emissions and energy per tonne of steel.

    • Crude steel production by process … Total of above countries … 69.4 … 30.3 … accounted for approximately 100% of world crude steel production in 2025
  5. 5

    U.S. Geological Survey (T.D. Kelly, W.S. Kirk, J.D. Jorgenson, C.C. Tuck), 2024. Iron ore statistics, in Historical Statistics for Mineral and Material Commodities in the United States (Data Series 140) , ds140-iron_ore-2021.xlsx, columns 'World production' and 'Unit value (98$/t)'.

    World usable iron ore production 1905 to 2021 and US unit value of iron ore in 1998 dollars.

    • World production … 116,000,000 … 514,000,000 … 969,000,000
    • World production ... 1,320,000,000 ... 1,870,000,000
  6. 6

    U.S. Geological Survey (C.C. Tuck), 2026. Iron Ore, in Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 , p. 2, World Mine Production and Reserves table; World Resources.

    World mine production, reserves and resources of iron ore and its iron content, 2024 and 2025.

    • World total (rounded) … 2,600,000 2,600,000
  7. 7

    Western Australian Treasury Corporation, 2026. Western Australia Iron Ore Profile: January 2026 .

    Western Australia's iron ore royalties, jobs, exports and buyers, world imports, and the output of Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue.

    • The share of iron ore trade to global iron ore production increased from 54% in 2004 to 70% in 2024
  8. 8

    Rio Tinto, 2025. Simandou partners celebrate start of operations (media release) .

    Simandou start of operations on 11 November 2025, export capacity, owners and rail line.

    • Simandou partners celebrate start of operations 11 November 2025
    • Simandou partners celebrate start of operations 11 November 2025 ... up to 120 million tonnes per year
  9. 9

    Tenenbein M. (Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine), 2005. Unit-dose packaging of iron supplements and reduction of iron poisoning in young children , Abstract (PubMed record 15939855, text format).

    Deaths from iron poisoning in US children under six fell from 29 (1988 to 1997) to 1 (1998 to 2002) after the 1997 unit-dose packaging rule.

    • proclaimed a regulation for unit-dose packaging of iron supplements in 1997 ... The number of deaths decreased from 29 to 1
  10. 10

    Australian Government (The Treasury), 2013. Repeal of the Minerals Resource Rent Tax: Regulation Impact Statement .

    Start, rate and revenue of the MRRT, the government's reasons for repeal, and the views of those who opposed repeal.

    • The Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) commenced operation on 1 July 2012
  11. 11

    SBS News (source AAP), 2014. Guinea to cancel BSG Resources-Vale mining .

    20 April 2014: the Guinean government says it will follow a state committee's recommendation to cancel the rights, because of evidence of corrupt practices.

    • has said it has evidence the exploitation rights were obtained through corrupt practices and recommended they be cancelled ... Guinea would follow the committee
  12. 12

    High Court of England and Wales, Technology and Construction Court (O'Farrell J), 2025. Municipio de Mariana and others v BHP Group: summary of the judgment ([2025] EWHC 3001 (TCC)) , Paragraphs 1 to 3 and 9 to 12.

    The court's own summary of the liability judgment of November 2025 on the Fundão dam failure. The summary is not part of the reasons.

    • On 5 November 2015, the Fundão Dam in Brazil collapsed ... The flow of tailings killed 19 people, destroyed the village of Bento Rodrigues
  13. 13

    The White House (Federal Register document 2026-11314), 2026. Proclamation 11032: Further Adjusting the Tariff Regimes for Imports of Aluminum, Steel, and Copper Into the United States , Clauses 1 to 3.

    The US national security reason for the section 232 tariffs, the history since Proclamation 9705 of 2018, and the rates set in April 2026.

    • Proclamation 9705 of March 8, 2018 (Adjusting Imports of Steel Into the United States)
  14. 14

    Zhu F., Zhang W., Puzrin A.M. (Communications Earth & Environment), 2024. The slip surface mechanism of delayed failure of the Brumadinho tailings dam in 2019 , Abstract; Introduction.

    Brumadinho dam failure on 25 January 2019, 270 deaths, and the link to the 2015 Fundão failure.

    • On 25 th January 2019, a tailings dam at the Córrego do Feijão iron ore mine, in the Brumadinho city, Brazil, failed suddenly, killing 270 people
  15. 15

    Australian Government, 2022. Australian Government response to the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia's reports on the destruction of Indigenous heritage sites at Juukan Gorge , Minister's foreword; background.

    Age of the Juukan rock shelters and the government's response to the parliamentary inquiry.

    • The rock shelters contain evidence of human life going back 46,000 years
  16. 16

    NPR, 2022. Ukraine's iron and steel industry is in rough shape because of war .

    Ukrainian iron ore exports by sea stopped after the 2022 invasion.

    • Exports of bulk iron ore, for instance, that are shipped by the ton in massive cargo vessels have stopped entirely from Ukrainian ports
  17. 17

    Congressional Research Service, 2026. Nippon Steel's Acquisition of U.S. Steel (R48872) , Introduction.

    The approval of June 2025 under a national security agreement with a golden share, and the concerns of unions and steel buyers.

    • On June 13, 2025, President Donald Trump approved the acquisition ... President Trump’s decision to approve the acquisition came after President Biden issued an order prohibiting the acquisition
  18. 18

    Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (reporting Sydney Morning Herald, Le Monde, BBC Brasil, Deutschlandfunk), 2025. UK: BHP found liable in Brazil dam collapse disaster .

    High Court judgment of 14 November 2025 on BHP's liability for the Fundão failure, and BHP's response.

    • BHP on Friday confirmed that the English High Court had found it liable under Brazilian law for the 2015 dam failure
  19. 19

    European Commission (Taxation and Customs Union), 2026. Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism .

    CBAM covers iron and steel and applies in its definitive regime from 1 January 2026.

    • CBAM applies in its definitive regime from 1 January 2026
  20. 20

    Ministério Público Federal (Brazil's federal prosecution service, which brought the appeal), 2026. TRF6 condena Samarco e três ex-gerentes por rompimento de barragem em Mariana (MG) .

    The TRF6 appeal ruling of September 2026 against Samarco and three former managers, as reported by the prosecutor (in Portuguese). Deaths, harm to the Rio Doce basin and losses of the towns.

    • condenou a empresa Samarco Mineração e três de seus ex-gerentes