A process for molten-iron production which comprises: charging a solid reduced iron obtained by reducing carbon composite iron oxide briquettes with heating, a carbon material, and a fluxing agent into a melting furnace of the iron bath type while bubbling an inert gas into a molten-iron layer in the melting furnace from a bottom tuyere disposed at the furnace bottom and thereby stirring the molten-iron layer; and injecting an oxygen-containing gas from a top lance disposed in the melting furnace and thereby burning the carbon material and/or the carbon contained in the molten iron to melt the solid reduced iron by the resultant combustion heat and produce molten iron. The carbon material is charged so that a slag layer made of a slag formed on the molten-iron layer when the solid reduced iron is melted into molten iron comes to have, in an upper layer part thereof, a slag layer containing the carbon material suspended therein and that a carbon-material covering layer consisting only of the carbon material is formed on the slag layer containing the carbon material suspended therein. The molten iron and slag stored in the melting furnace are discharged through a tap hole formed in a lower part of a side of the melting furnace.