Abstract: China has a long distance with the world level of the development and utilization of iron tailings.In this paper,investigation on development and utilization of iron tailings resources in large and middle mining enterprises has been made through the investigation.It is found that the development and utilization mainly stay in the recycling of valuable metal elements and substitutes of din as directly.High value-added products are basically in laboratory and pilot stage.With the qualitative and quantitative analysis methods and historical and practical perspective,four causes of low development and exploitation of iron tailings resources are analyzed.According to circular economy theory and industry chain analysis,it can be seen that the model of development and utilization of iron tailings resource is "overall utilization".The results show that,if overall utilization of iron tailings can be made in an organized and planned way,there will be a win-win situation of four type’s benefits.