NAICS 21221Industry · 5-digitinternational market

Iron ore mining

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in mining, beneficiating or otherwise preparing iron ores, and manganiferous ores valued chiefly for their iron content. Establishments engaged in the production of sinter and other agglomerates, except those associated with blast furnace operations, are included. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA
11
with employees · summed from 6-digit industries
Under 10 employeesA
9%
most common size: 500+
Establishments · USA
26
Employment · USA
4,836
186 per establishment
Payroll · USA
$529M
$109k per employee
01

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–419%
5–90—
10–1919%
20–490—
50–990—
100–199218%
200–49919%
500+655%

Of 11 Canadian establishments with employees, 9% have fewer than ten — an industry where large establishments carry real weight.

Where they areA

Quebec436%
Ontario327%
Newfoundland and Labrador218%
Yukon19%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction, US · opened 2020
75.4%
1 year
60%
3 years
48.5%
5 years
24.5%
10 years
opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

02

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 212, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

international competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 212 Mining and quarrying (except oil and gas)

Decade-long permitting and nine-figure capital. Aggregates and quarrying are the exception: local, haul-distance-bound and occasionally reachable.

Who sets the price
Global metal and mineral markets.
The software it runs on
Mine planning, geology modelling, fleet dispatch and safety systems.
03

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 2122 Metal ore mining covers it.

04

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

Sold across the wider branch

05

Who works here

The occupations employed in Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

06

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 21221. Each has a base report of its own.

CodeIndustryEstablishments · CAWhat is known
212210Iron ore mining11screened at 2122

Alongside it, under 2122 Metal ore mining

CodeIndustryEstablishments · CAWhat is known
21222Gold and silver ore mining117screened at 2122
21223Copper, nickel, lead and zinc ore mining37screened at 2122
21229Other metal ore mining32screened at 2122