Can iron and iron ore be separated?

A magnet is used to separate iron from non-ferrous material in the pulverized ore.

by heating iron ore and a source of carbon

You have to smelt it to get the iron out. Other wise, you can't get iron form iron ore.

Basically Iron is formed by the reduction of iron ores by carbon: 2Fe2O3 + 3C -> 4Fe +3 CO2Again, this is only the basic formula. the entire process occurs in a number of steps.

Iron ores consists mostly of oxygen and iron atoms bonded together into molecules. To convert these oxides or iron to metallic iron, they must be smelted or sent through a direct reduction process to...