Abstract: Sulfur is a harmful impurity element that needs to be removed in the development and utilization of iron-containing materials. The sources, occurrence characteristics and hazards of sulfur in iron-containing materials were introduced successively. The technical status of desulfurization of iron-containing materials from three aspects of flotation, roasting and hydrometallurgy was summarized in proper sequence. Moreover, the applicable conditions and application characteristics of these three desulfurization methods were discussed and the advantages and disadvantages of each other were compared. Looking forward to the future research and development direction of sulfur-containing iron material desulfurization, it is pointed out that the flotation method needs to be chosen the grinding flowsheets and reagent systems reasonably, and pay attention to the copper ion composite activator and the xanthate-type composite collector to improve the flotation desulfurization index. The roasting method will be selected the appropriate roaster type and selected the appropriate thermal system according to the composition and thermodynamic properties of sulfur-containing minerals. Biological leaching should be combined the migration and evolution characteristics of multi-form sulfur elements, by cultivating benign and high-efficiency bacteria, and implementing short-period high-efficiency leaching to achieve high-efficiency desulfurization.