How is iron isolated?

Answer 1

Pure iron is only rarely isolated, because for practical uses, iron is most valuable when it contains some carbon, as in most kinds of steel. On a large scale, iron is most often obtained from its ores by mixing the ore with an inexpensive source of carbon, such as coal or coke, and heating the mixture to a sufficiently high temperature that the carbon can reduce the iron in the ore to a liquid metal, which is then removed from the heating furnace as a liquid and cooled in molds until the iron solidifies into pieces that are easy to handle in further processing or manufacture. If really pure iron is needed, it can be made in a laboratory by reducing carefully purified iron oxide with a very strong reducing agent such as metallic sodium.

Answer 2

Iron is typically isolated through a process called "smelting," where iron ore is heated in a furnace with coke (a form of carbon) to remove impurities and extract the metal. The molten iron is then cast into molds to solidify into its final shape, such as bars or ingots.