Method of producing reduced iron

A method of producing reduced iron ore, the method comprising:

• a pellet production process of mixing iron ore powder, binder, and auxiliary material, granulating to obtain green pellets, and then firing the green pellets to obtain iron ore pellets;
• and
• a reduction process of charging the iron ore pellets into a vertical shaft furnace and directly reducing the iron ore pellets via a reducing gas to obtain reduced iron pellets,
• wherein,
• raw material of the iron ore powder includes iron ore having a composition in which total Fe content is 63 mass % or less and the sum of SiO2 and Al2O3 is 4 mass % or more, and
• the reduced iron pellets satisfy the following Expression (1)
• (
• SiO
• 2
• +
• Al
• 2
• ⁢
• O
• 3
• +
• C
• ⁢
• a
• ⁢
• O
• +
• M
• ⁢
• g
• ⁢
• O
• +
• F
• ⁢
• e
• ⁢
• O
• )
• /
• M
• ≥
• 0
• .
• 1
• ⁢
• 5
• (
• 1
• )
• where, in Expression (1), SiO2, Al2O3, CaO, and MgO are SiO2, Al2O3, CaO, and MgO content, in mass %, of the reduced iron pellets, FeO is residual iron oxide content, in mass %, of the reduced iron pellets, and M.Fe is metallic iron content, in mass %, of the reduced iron pellets.