It may not be the sexiest of metals to investors, but iron is also arguably one of the most important. That was the message of Brian Thurston, President of Raytec Metals Corp. (TSX.V: RAY) in a recent interview with Resourcex.com. The junior exploration company has turned its focus from uranium in the Athabasca Basin to iron ore in Ontario and South America.

?The young juniors that have moved to iron ore in Canada are doing very well,? Thurston observed. ?Sure, it's not as sexy as gold, but iron is a hot commodity. Since 2004 its price has more than doubled. In 2007 it was predicted for an almost 10% increase again and we're looking for another more than 25% gain in 2008.?

Although iron happens to be the second most abundant metal in the earth's crust (after aluminium), it is increasingly difficult to meet demand for the metal. Demand for iron grows at approximately 10% per annum, driven principally by growth in both developing and Western countries including China, Japan, Korea, the US and EU.

Meanwhile, the world's big three producers ? CVRD, Rio Tinto, and BHP Billiton ? are finding it increasingly difficult to keep production in line with global demand. The result has been price increases completely out of proportion with historical averages. Based on a 2007 TEX report, prices for iron ore pellets have risen from $30 per Dry Metric Tonne (DMT) in 2002 to over $70/DMT in 2007 (based on Eastern Canadian Pellet Price with 64% iron content).

According to a 2007 report from Lehman Brothers, the contract price of iron ore has risen in each of the past five years to a record even as China boosted steel output. Prices will gain another 50 percent this year on massive demand from China, the investment bank stated.

Raytec announced its first iron ore acquisition on November 29, 2007, and at the time of writing was about to announce another two, for a total of three iron ore properties in Ontario.

The first project in its portfolio is the El Sol Historic Iron Ore Project, which is located in the Red Lake Mining District of Ontario.

Extensive drilling and metallurgical testing were conducted on El Sol between 1956 and 1957. Airborne and ground magnetic surveys defined two large parallel magnetic anomalies, with the "A" zone measuring in excess of 4 km in length and the "B" zone measuring in excess of 2 km in strike length.

A total of 67 diamond drill holes totalling 10,363 meters were drilled on these two zones, identifying a historic resource of 312 million tons grading 32.4% iron to a depth of 300 meters. Two holes were drilled below the 300-meter (984 feet) level and showed no significant changes in grade, the company stated.

Additionally, ?From knowledge of similar iron formations in the area, notably at Central Patricia Gold Mines Ltd. where mining for gold in iron formation was carried to a depth of 1220m (4,000 feet), it may be inferred that similar depths may be encountered at El Sol.?

Now the company plans to do magnetic surveys and start drilling as soon as possible to move the historic resource calculations into an updated, increased and NI 43-101 compliant resource.

?There is very little field work needed on this property before we can get a drill on there and see what we have. Since it's already been drilled we're just going in there to prove up what we know and see what we can add to it.?

Although Raytec is focussed on iron ore, it was an attraction to uranium that saw them move into the junior exploration business in the first place. In early 2007, Raytec Metals Corp. (TSX.V: RAY) jumped onto the Athabasca Basin uranium scene with a newly formed team and a package of 17 uranium claims in the Athabasca Basin.

?The uranium plays got us into the market and a change of business,? Thurston explained. ?We feel very strongly about our uranium JVs. We've got the Key Lake West and East properties, which are very promising. Any one of those could be a company maker. Plus we've got Triex in there, and they've got a lot of really competent people on their team and they've got the exploration capital, so we're happy with that in their hands.?