Highly ordered mesoporous materials were successfully synthesized by using the iron ore tailings as the silica source and n-hexadecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide as the template. The samples were detail characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscope, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and N(2) physisorption. The as-synthesized materials had high surface area of 527 m(2) g(-1) and the mean pore diameter of 2.65 nm with a well-ordered two-dimensional hexagonal structure. It is feasible to prepare mesoporous MCM-41 materials using the iron ore tailings as precursor. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.