West Africa is one of the regions with the most abundant iron ore resources in the world, with the total amount of iron ore up to 64.95 billion tons, accounting for 8% of the world. The iron ore resources in the West Africa are mainly distributed in the Man Shield and Reguibat Shield, with the most abundant in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Mauritania, and the genetic type of ore deposit is mainly BIF type. According to public information, 43 companies have invested in the development of 73 iron ore mines in West Africa, among which five Chinese companies, including the China Kingho, China Baowu Steel Group, SMB- Winning Consortium, Aluminum Corporation of China and China International Fund Management Co. Ltd., have the equity resources of 21. 75 billion tons, forming a three- way competition with the 8 native countries of the West Africa and the 7 western countries. Based on the database of S & P Global Market Intelligence and the annual reports of the iron ore companies, the annual iron ore product of west Africa in recent ten years is 20 million tons, accounting for less than 0.1% of the world. So far, most of the iron ore mines in West Africa are suspended or temporarily suspended, and only 21 iron ore mines are active. Among the five projects controlled by Chinese companies, only the Tonkolili iron mine is under development. Based on the geological and aeromagnetic data of West Africa, we used the weight of evidence model to calculate the potential iron ore resource of West Africa. It is predicted that the number of undiscovered iron ore deposits in West Africa is 63, 92, and 324, respectively, and the resource potential is 26.46 billion tons, 38.64 billion tons and 136.08 billion tons respectively, at the 90%, 50%, and 10% confidence levels.