For trustworthy numerical simulations of iron ore pellets flow, knowledge about the mechanical properties of pellets is needed. In this work, an elastic-plastic continuum material model for blast furnace iron ore pellets is worked out from an experimental data. The equipment used is a Norwegian simple shear apparatus, designed for compression and shear test of granular material with a grain size less than 100 mm. It consists of a cylindrical cell filled with pellets surrounded by a rubber membrane and a rigid top and bottom. Two types of tests are performed. One test is pure compression and unloading and the second is shearing at different stress levels. Evaluation of these tests is performed and the elastic-plastic behaviour of iron ore pellets is characterized. Determined constitutive data are two elastic parameters and a yield function. The presented material model captures the major characteristics of the pellets even though it is too simple to completely capture the complex behaviour shown in the experiments. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.