ABSTRACT
       Forty-five iron deposits contain virtually all of Turkey's known iron resources as of March 1969. Although the resources are estimated to total some 216 million to 230 million metric tons, only 52.3 million tons are classed as reserves minable under currently prevailing (1969) economic conditions in Turkey, and assuming that sintering is available at each steel plant. About 50 million additional tons of marginal potential ores may become minable under somewhat more favorable economic and/or technologic conditions, and upward of 100 million tons of low-grade submarginal and latent potential ores may be recoverable only under much more favorable conditions at a more distant future date.
       The iron resources of Turkey are classified into seven geologic types-contact metasomatic, hydrothermal, surface hydrothermal, sedimentary, sedimentary-metamorphic, blocky, and lateritic and bog. More than 90 percent of the reserves and a large percent of the more promising potential ores are of either contact-metasomatic or hydrothermal origin, whereas the vast bulk of the low-grade (Latent) resources are of sedimentary origin.