COMO se EXTRAE el HIERRO de la TIERRA y se CONVIERTE en ACERO

Every year, more than 2,500 million tons of iron ore are produced around the world. But to reach this amazing figure, it is necessary to process huge amounts of magnetite, a rock from which iron is obtained. But how does this mineral become one of the most resistant metals in the world? We visit the largest iron deposit in the United States and the largest processing plant on the planet to discover how iron is extracted from mines and how it becomes steel. Iron is the most abundant element on Earth. Civilization could not survive without it. We find it everywhere, in skyscrapers, on trains and on ships. But it is also the core of the center of the Earth and runs through our veins. Iron, when combined with carbon to form steel, becomes one of the most versatile and resistant materials ever created. It is one of the most appreciated metals, not only for its unique strength, but also because extreme heat can turn it into a surprisingly malleable material. Iron is one of the few things on Earth that is first a mineral, and after being forged in fire, it becomes a tool that will last for generations. It can be found under our feet. The earth's crust is made up of 5% iron ore, and miners extract around 2,500 million tons each year. In the mountains of northern Menasora, ArcelorMittal operates one of the largest iron mines in the world. The ArcelorMittal Minorca mine produces more than 10 million tons of iron ore each year. It is approximately 1.5 km wide by 1 km long. In this huge open-air mine, one of the largest deposits of iron ore in the United States is being exploited. But where does all this iron come from? This deposit was formed billions of years ago, long after the Big Bang. The stars created elements whose interior was very heavy, until they became supernovas. One in particular helped create the Earth. When that agonizing star exploded, it released iron and other elements throughout its area of ​​the galaxy. When the Earth was formed, it was a great mixture of elements, the remains of the supernova. And then, when those elements were dispersed in different bags, the iron, which is very dense, sank along and across the nucleus. In fact, 98% of the Earth's core is iron. Enormous amounts of iron remained in the Earth's crust, sometimes in the form of deposits, like a great mountain full of iron that rose in what is now Menasora. The first rains that fell on the planet were very acidic and dissolved the iron of the mountains, creating an ocean rich in iron. Hundreds of millions of years later, the dissolved iron solidified and settled in the bottom, leaving only the deposits we excavate today. Iron demand is so high that the process is repeated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year. In Menasora, it is estimated that there is enough iron mineral to maintain mining activity for at least another 100 years. The mineral extracted here is a ferric oxide called magnetite, which has 22% iron. Until the late 1940s, American iron miners extracted a richer mineral called hematite, which is made up of 65% iron. But the enormous demand for iron during the First and Second World Wars exhausted the resources of the nation's hematite. Magnetite is black in color and has a percentage of iron lower than hematite. Getting to the mineral begins with an explosion. The explosive team will place 900 kilos of dynamite at each opening, which would be equivalent to the material needed to blow up the city of Oklahoma. The loads cover half an hectare of land and contain an explosive force of almost half that of the first atomic bomb. In a blink of an eye, more than 300,000 tons of rock are shot into the sky. The earth shakes and thunder is heard miles away. But why risk your life for a little iron dust? The answer is that it is not just about dust, it is about the raw material that one day will become the most important super metal in the world, steel. About 98% of steel is iron. The compressed layers of the mine contain only 25% iron oxide, mixed with silica and other impurities. Almost 2 kilos of mineral are needed to obtain just half a kilo of metal. Because so much mineral is needed to make steel, everything is done on an amazing scale. Huge excavators collect the mineral fragments. The largest excavator in the area can lift up to 59 metric tons of rock. These machines deposit the mineral in gigantic trucks. These trucks are the size of a house and can carry up to 218 metric tons of rock. They transport the iron mineral directly to the processing plant. In the plant, the mineral is crushed into even smaller pieces with crushing machines. Operating like a 900-horsepower mortar, the crusher grinds the mineral at an average of 3,000 tons per hour. Then some 360-kilo rollers powder it until it reaches a sandy consistency. Once the crusher and rollers have reduced the iron mineral to dust, the mixer combines it with water to obtain a mass that will later pass through magnetic separators. The magnetic separators are huge drums of about 3 meters long and 1.2 meters in diameter that contain stationary magnets. When the drums turn, they collect the iron particles that the mineral has and separate them from the non-magnetic particles. The machines mix that iron paste with clay, which is then heated to 1,300 degrees Celsius and molded into small, easy-to-transport marbles. And this is the result, little balls of iron mineral that contain 60% of iron. Then they are sent by boat and railroad to the melting furnaces to turn them into steel. The railroad has 232 wagons, each carrying an average of 134 tons. It is 2.5 kilometers long, making it one of the longest trains in the world. The railroad carries the iron mineral to the port, where the boats are loaded. Every day, more than 900,000 tons of balls of iron mineral are sent by boat. From there they advance to the melting furnaces to turn into steel. Manufacturing steel in large quantities was one of the great technological challenges of the Industrial Revolution. The trick to creating this metal was to achieve the exact combination of the two main components of steel, iron and carbon. With too much iron, the metal would be soft. With too much carbon, the material is too brittle, known as molten iron. Achieving that iron merges with the adequate proportion of carbon was the greatest effort on the planet for almost 2,000 years. It was not until 1856 that the British scientist Henry Bassamore discovered an effective way to convert iron and carbon into steel. He did it by applying hot oxygen explosions inside a specialized oven, in order to reduce the amount of carbon in the metal. Every day 17,000 tons of iron mineral are poured into the melting furnaces of ArcelorMittal. Each year this 400-hectare extension produces enough steel to build a train track around the planet. This is the most efficient steel-producing plant in the world. Most of the impurities have already been separated, but there is still one, oxygen. Breaking that union is one of the greatest challenges of the modern industry. To achieve this, extreme heat and heavy machinery are used that allows to extract oxygen and infuse carbon, thus creating a stronger, more resistant and less fragile metal than pure iron. The iron mineral is heated at a temperature generated by a fuel called coke. The very hot air ignites the coke, as if it were the coal of a barbecue, and raises the temperature of the oven to about 2,200 degrees Celsius. With that temperature, the oxygen is finally released, leaving only pure melted iron. But something even more amazing also happens. As the flames of the coke eliminate the oxygen, the carbon of the coke binds to the iron. Under that extreme heat, the mixture becomes liquid and impurities such as silica and sulfur rise to the surface, while the heavier iron sinks to the bottom. Every 45 minutes, about 500 tons of molten metal sprout from that opening. But although the iron has already been released from the oxygen, it still contains too much carbon, more than 4%, which makes it a too brittle metal. To turn into steel, it is necessary to reduce that proportion to less than 2%. With a temperature higher than 530 degrees Celsius, the steel is still red hot. That is why it is transferred to a series of rollers, where it cools with water and is reduced. From huge boards of 34 tons and 23 centimeters thick, to thin tapes of just 2 centimeters thick. Turning the natural iron extracted from the mine into the most widely used high-strength metal in the world takes just two and a half hours. 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