Bauxite

bauxite, rock largely composed of a mixture of hydrous aluminum oxides. Bauxite is the principal ore of aluminum.

Bauxites vary physically according to the origin and geologic history of their deposits: some deposits are soft, easily crushed, and structureless; some are hard, dense, and pisolitic, or pealike; still others are porous but strong or are stratified or largely pseudomorphic after their parent rock. The laterite type is commonly pisolitic and mottled, with pisolites ranging in size from about 2.5 mm (0.10 inch) to 25 cm (10 inches) or more in diameter. Both pisolites and groundmass (matrix) may exhibit great colour variations; common colours are pink, cream, red, brown, yellow, and gray. Exposed surfaces of lateritic ore are rough, often lavalike, with a wormlike structure and variegated colours on vertical faces. Such material tends to harden or reconsolidate on exposure to air. Although terra-rossa types are granular and earthy, they also may possess pisolitic structures.

Bauxite is formed by the thorough weathering of many different rocks. Clay minerals commonly represent intermediate stages, but some bauxites appear to be reworked chemical precipitates rather than simple alteration products. Bauxite may grade into laterite or clay, laterally or vertically.

Constituent minerals are rarely recognizable in hand specimens, and even in thin sections complete identification may be difficult. Combined petrography, X-ray diffraction, and differential thermal analysis have shown that gibbsite, boehmite, and diaspore, alone or in mixtures, are the constituent minerals. Clay minerals, hematite, magnetite, goethite, siderite, and quartz are common impurities. Most deposits contain rutile, anatase, zircon, and other minerals.

Bauxite is found in most countries, but the larger deposits occur in the tropics. Major deposits of gravels mixed with sand were discovered in Australia in the 1950s, and it became the world’s top producer of bauxite by the early 21st century. Other top producers include China, Indonesia, Brazil, and India. In addition, monohydrate ores have been extensively mined in France, Italy, and Greece and trihydrate ores in Arkansas, U.S., and in Suriname, Guyana, and Jamaica. Gibbsite-rich ores occur in Ghana, Guinea, India, and Brazil. Deposits in the Ural Mountains and in northern Asia are largely diaspore.