In the United States about 85 per cent of the production, or one-third of the world's production, comes from the Lake Superior region, a large part of the remainder from the Birmingham district, Alabama, and smaller quantities from the Adirondacks. For the rest of the North American continent, the only largely producing deposit is that at Belle Isle, Newfoundland, which is the basis of the iron industry of eastern Canada. Cuba supplies some ore to the east coast of the United States.
In Europe there are only three large sources of high-grade iron ore which have heretofore been drawn on largely,--the magnetite deposits of northern Sweden, the hematites and siderites of the Bilbao and adjacent districts of northern Spain, and the magnetite-hematite deposits of southern Russia. The first two of these ores have been used to raise the percentage of iron in the low-grade ores which are the principal reliance of western Europe. The Swedish ores have also been necessary in order to raise the percentage of phosphorus and thus make the ores suitable for the Thomas process; on the other hand the Spanish ores and a small part of the Swedish material have been desired because of their low phosphorus content, adapted to the acid Bessemer process and to the manufacture of low-phosphorus pig. The Russian ores have largely been smelted in that country.
The largest of the western European low-grade deposits is a geographic and geologic unit spreading over parts of Lorraine, Luxemburg, and the immediately adjacent Briey, Longwy, and Nancy districts of France. The ores of this region are called "minette" ores. This unit produces about a fourth of the world's iron ore. Low-grade deposits of a somewhat similar nature in the Cleveland, Lincolnshire, and adjacent districts of England form the main basis for the British industry. There is minor production of iron ores in other parts of France and Germany, in Austria-Hungary, and in North Africa (these last being important because of their low phosphorus content).
Comparison of figures of consumption and production of iron ores indicates that the United States, France, Russia, and Austria-Hungary are self-supporting so far as quantity of materials is concerned. Certain ores of special grades, and ores of other minerals of the ferro-alloy group required in steel making, however, must be imported from foreign sources; this matter has been discussed above. Great Britain and Germany appear to be dependent on foreign sources, even under pre-war conditions, for part of the material for their furnaces. During the war there was considerable development of the low-grade English ores, but this does not eliminate the necessity for importing high-grade ores for mixture. Belgium produces a very small percentage of her ore requirements and is practically dependent on the Lorraine-Luxemburg field.