Abstract: To identify the process mineralogical properties of an iron ore from Xinjiang so as to provide a mineralogical basis for its beneficiation research, a systematic investigation was made of its mineral composition, iron occurrence mode and magnetite dissemination by chemical analysis, X ray diffraction and optical microscopy. The results show that this ore is a low grade magnetite-hematite ore with mainly magnetite, and has an average iron grade of only 17.33%, including 71% magnetic iron. Due to their fine dissemination and close association with gangue minerals, the magnetite particles are hard to be fully liberated, bringing difficulty in their separation.

Key words: Low grade iron ore, Process mineralogy, Magnetite dissemination size, Iron occurrence mode