Iron Ore is actually a collection of rocks or minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted.

The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in colour from dark grey, bright yellow, deep purple, to rusty red. Iron ore is the raw material used to make pig iron, which is one of the main raw materials to make steel.

Iron Ore itself is primarily made up of both Iron Oxides, and Oxygen but that oxygen is removed during a progress called Smelting to convert it into a metallic form - Pig Iron.

The traditional shape of the molds used for these ingots was a branching structure formed in sand, with many individual ingots at right angles to a central channel or runner. Such a configuration is similar in appearance to a litter of piglets suckling on a sow.

When the metal had cooled and hardened, the smaller ingots (the pigs) were simply broken from the much thinner runner (the sow), hence the name pig iron.

On its own however Pig Iron is very brittle due to its high carbon content and isn't often used for anything unless re-melted with various alloys added to create Cast Iron.

Silicon is a common ingredient when creating Cast Iron as it displaces the Carbon content from the mixture as graphite, leaving behind a soft, pure iron that can be moulded accordingly.

Pig Iron is also used to create steel using the same method, however various alloying elements such as manganese, nickel, chromium and vanadium are added to the mixture while it is been smelted which in turn further reduce the carbon content creating a much more studier metal.

Today, steel is one of the most common materials in the world and is a major component in buildings, tools, automobiles, and appliances we use in our every day lives.

Some of the first steel comes from East Africa, dating back to 1400 BC, although it can also be contributed to the Chinese who were making Pig Iron by the later Zhou Dynasty (1122–256 BC). By the 1st Century BC  they were also creating Blast Furnaces which could have been used to produce Steel Molds.