We do not know for certain which people were the first to know about iron and its mining. Although its compounds and ores are many and spread in many places on the surface of the Earth, man first knew it as a pure metal that falls from the sky in the meteors that fall from it.
The first and oldest evidence of human use of iron was discovered in Egypt. Two sets of iron beads were discovered, one made up of seven beads and the other made up of two beads, dating back more than five thousand years ago, before history began with the ancient Egyptian dynasties. Rust had taken its toll on these beads, so they all turned into iron oxide. However, the chemists who analyzed them were able to identify that these beads were made from a sliver of iron metal.