The special layered structure and clay characteristics of bentonite make it the main binder for pellet production, but its main chemical components are SiO₂ and Al₂O₃, so adding bentonite to the pellets is equivalent to adding acid gangue minerals, which will reduce the iron grade of the finished pellets and increase the cost of pig iron smelting, therefore, the amount of bentonite should be reduced as much as possible in pellets production. Therefore, the composite bentonite is used for small-scale laboratory tests and industrial application tests to analyze the effects of different types of bentonite on the performance of pellets. The results show that, compared with conventional bentonite, the addition of composite bentonite can effectively improve the performance of fresh pellets, preheated pellets and finished pellets, among which the falling strength of fresh pellets is increased from 2.4 times/(0.5 m) to 4.3 times/(0.5 m), the bursting temperature increases from 360 ℃ to more than 500 ℃, and the compressive strength of finished pellets is the most obvious, from 3 480 N/P to 3 774 N/P. The ratio of composite bentonite is about 1.0% lower than that of conventional bentonite, and its economic benefits are remarkable.