Abstract: The mining market environment is the important external factor affecting the exploration of mineral resources，and the evaluation on it is significant for the development of overseas mineral resources. Firstly，the main factors influencing the mining market environment are identified，and an assessment index system is established to determine the weight of each index by analytical hierarchy process; Then，the model based on constant weight is built by determining the evaluation subject and classifying the evaluation index. Finally，the integrated assessment model based on the variable weight is established，and the evaluation results of both models are compared with each other. The research indicated that with better theoretic and application value，the models being built gained the ranking of the mining market environment for different countries according to its merits. This rank is more consistent with the reality，and can be used as an important reference to select the overseas iron ore resources for China's mining companies.

Key words: Mining market environment, Iron mine, Variable-weight assessment, Overseas investment