How Steel is Made: a Brief Summary of a Blast Furnace: There are two types of metals, ferrous & non-ferrous. Ferrous comes from, or contains iron, while Non-Ferrous does not contain iron. Some examples of ferrous metals would be mild steel, cast iron, high strength steel, and tool steels. Examples of non-ferrous metals would be copper, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, etc. To make steel, iron ore is first mined from the ground. It is then smelted in blast furnaces where the impurities are removed and carbon is added.