Аннотация:This book covers reseach areas encompassing the value chain from mining to processing of iron ore and is structured into two sections:(i) Genesis and (ii) Characterisation and Processsing.The chapters are written by researches from all over the world covering the multidisciplinary aspects from geological genesis to historic context of mining and exploitation of deposit and from beneficiation and sintering of iron ore to novel reduction techniques and application of advanced characterization methods.The readers-researches, students and industry professionals, now have a rare opportunity to find comprehensive, cutting-edge information covering a wide range of interdispciplinary issues in the domain of science and technology of iron ores in a single book. A complex layer-by-layer morphology and phase analysis of a ferromanganese crust aged about 70 million years, extracted from the rise of the Magellan Mountains of the Pacific Ocean, was carried out using several physics methods: digital optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy with high resolution, X-ray fluorescence and diffraction analysis and Mossbauer spectroscopy. This analysis showed that the crust is an association of several minerals with various dispersion and crystallization degree, between which fossilized bacterial mats with Fe- and Mn- oxides are located. These phenomena indicate the biogenic nature of the crust. Changes in the crusts phase composition from the lower layer to the upper layer indicate changes in the external environmental conditions during their formation