Zinc, magnesium, and manganese commonly substitute for the iron, resulting in the siderite-smithsonite, siderite-magnesite, and siderite-rhodochrosite solid solution series.

It is also a common diagenetic mineral in shales and sandstones, where it sometimes forms concretions, which can encase three-dimensionally preserved fossils.

[6] In sedimentary rocks, siderite commonly forms at shallow burial depths and its elemental composition is often related to the depositional environment of the enclosing sediments.

Developments of specific techniques to deal with these ores began in the early 19th century, largely with the work of Sir Thomas Lethbridge in Somerset.

Although the first demonstrations by Bessemer in 1856 were successful, others' initial attempts to replicate his method infamously failed to produce good steel.

[15] Work by the metallurgist Robert Forester Mushet showed that the reason for the discrepancy was the nature of the Swedish ores that Bessemer had innocently used; they were very low in phosphorus.

Although it was not available in sufficient quantity as a mineral, steelworks such as that at Ebbw Vale in South Wales soon learned to make it from the spathic siderite ores.