Cold briquetting of iron ores represents a significant pathway toward low-carbon metallurgy, so cold briquettes were manufactured and their performances evaluated. The results show that a compressive strength of 2048 N was obtained under the conditions of mixing the iron ores with 2.55 per cent binder, briquetting at 3 per cent moisture with a pressure of 20 MPa, and drying at 105°C for 4 hr. As the burden for a blast furnace, the dried briquettes presented excellent indexes with RDI+3.15 mm of 87.68 per cent, TI of 81.83 per cent and RSI lower than 5 per cent. For direct reduction process, such as the burden for Midrex, the metallisation rate was 88.12 per cent, the RDIDR-3.15 mm was 28.98 per cent and the compressive strength after reduction was 970 N. As the burden for HYL, the LTD+6.3 mm was 75.89 per cent, the RSI was lower than 5 per cent, the reducibility was 3.67 per cent when reduced at 950°C, and the compressive strength of the dried briquettes was 1212 N after reduction at 950°C.