With the continual mining of iron ore, the simple and easy separation iron ore reserve continues decreasing, while the occupy of complex refractory iron ore increases year by year. Rational exploitation and efficient utilization of complex refractory iron ore is the focus problem of the steel industry nowadays. Flotation is one of the most effective beneficiation methods for iron ores. It possesses high separation efficiency, high hoist scope of concentrate grade and recovery rate etc., especially for fine grain ores. The effective selection and utilization of flotation reagents is one of the important methods to improve the separation performance. The flotation reagent of iron ore has developed rapidly in recent years with increasing the ratio of refractory iron ore. This work summarized the research progress of iron ore flotation regulators in recent years, highlighted the research progress of flocculants, dispersants, activators, and inhibitors in iron ore flotation, and discussed their important role. Aiming at the complex refractory iron ore separation, especially the iron containing silicates type iron ore flotation, suffers from serious problems of routine regulators, such as poor selectivity and low separation efficiency etc. To explore and research excellent selectivity, high separation efficiency, wide source, non-toxic, and economically feasible novel modifiers and their compounds will be the research emphasis of iron ore flotation regulators.