Bauxite

Technical Note
What is bauxite?
Bauxite is a rock formed by the weathering of aluminium rich rocks that have been
severely leached of silica and other soluble materials in a wet tropical or subtropical
climate.
Hence, the major deposits are generally close to the surface. Bauxite is the worlds principal source of aluminium and can vary
Bauxite is a mixture of aluminium minerals, clay minerals, and from a very soft earth to a very hard rock. It can occur as red-
insoluble materials. Three aluminium minerals can occur in yellow compacted earth (both friable and re-cemented), small
bauxite: gibbsite, boehmite and diaspore. red round pebbles (pisolites), or large pale (pink, white, buff)
hard stones (see below left).
Physical forms of bauxite
Bauxite is usually classified according to its intended commercial
application: abrasive, cement, chemical, metallurgical and
refractory. Approximately 85% of the worlds bauxite production
is metallurgical bauxite and the alumina is extracted from the
bauxite in a refinery using a wet chemical caustic soda leach
process known as the Bayer process. The alumina is then
converted to aluminium metal via electrolysis in a smelter using
the energy-intensive Hall-Heroult process.

Bauxite formation
Pisolitic Pisolitic Bauxite forms from the breakdown of clays when large amounts
of rainfall leach away the more mobile elements in the host rock
leaving the relatively immobile aluminium with some silicon,
iron and titanium. Because climatic conditions play an important
role in the formation of the deposits, they can be very extensive
and are found on almost every continent. The largest known
economic resources occur in Guinea and Australia, followed by
Brazil, Vietnam and Jamaica. Indonesia, India, Guyana, China and
Greece make up the remainder of the top 10 countries.
Earthy Hard rock

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alsglobal.com Geochemistry Technical Note 1
There are two types of bauxite deposits. Both are a result of transformed to bauxite through lateritic weathering. Often the
chemical weathering: partially or fully transformed clays (bauxite) were washed into
and accumulated in eroded limestone cavities where further
1. Lateritic
These are the silicate bauxites formed in situ from weathering transformation occurred. Karstic bauxites are usually diaspore
of various aluminous silicate rocks such as granite, gneiss, deposits and occur predominantly in Europe, the Middle East,
basalt, syenite, and shale. They are found mostly in tropical and China and Jamaica.
temperate regions and occur primarily on plateau surfaces and They are generally smaller, poorer quality and have more complex
hill slopes. Most are residual accumulations from which most mineralogy (high processing costs) than lateritic deposits.
other constituents of the parent rock, other than alumina, have Most bauxite mines produce Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) bauxite
been leached. Lateritic bauxites consist mostly of gibbsite or a as they require no processing before being sent to a refinery.
mixture of gibbsite and boehmite. About 90% of bauxite is of However, some bauxites require some form of screening (either
lateritic origin. wet or dry) to remove the fine grained material to improve
2. Karstic the grade and/or handleability. These deposits usually have a
These are the carbonate bauxites that occur above carbonate rocks beneficiation plant that washes the bauxite and sends the high
(limestone and dolomite). They form when dispersed clay layers silica fines (kaolinite and/or quartz) to a tailings dam prior to ship
in the limestone are concentrated as the enclosing limestones loading the bauxite.
gradually dissolved during chemical weathering. The clays are

Global distribution of bauxite

Karstic bauxite

Lateritic bauxite

Annual mine production

Worldwide bauxite mine production for 2015, by major producing
countries Principal mineral components
90 of bauxite
80

70
The three main aluminium minerals are:
Gibbsite
60
Boehmite
50
Diaspore
Mt

40

30
The other minerals are impurities and include:
Kaolinite (clay)
20

10
Quartz
0
Haematite and Goethite (iron oxides)
Anatase and Rutile (titanium dioxide).
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Bauxite The aluminium minerals
mineralogy Gibbsite - Al(OH)3 or Al2O3.3H2O
Commonly referred to as tri-hydrate due to the three lots of water.
The mineralogy is very important
The three OH bonds are relatively weak and require the lowest
as it dictates the refining conditions
refining temperature to break them, typically 143C -150C.
that must be used and has a
large bearing on the economics Boehmite - AlO(OH) or Al2O3.H2O
of processing bauxite. Alumina Commonly referred to as monohydrate due to the single water.
refineries are usually classified as The single OH bond is much stronger than the three bonds in
either high temperature (>240C) or low temperature (~143C - gibbsite and requires a higher refining temperature to break it,
150C). typically 240-260C
Pure gibbsite or mixed gibbsite and boehmite deposits with a Diaspore - AlO(OH) or Al2O3.H2O
low boehmite content are usually sent to low temperature Has the same composition as boehmite but is denser and harder
refineries. However, once the deposit has more than about 6% due to a different crystal form.
boehmite, then it must be sent to a high temperature refinery Diaspore requires the highest refining temperatures to process,
due to economics. typically +260C.

Metallurgical extraction The Alumina Refinery

Bauxite is converted to alumina in a refinery through a continuous 3. Precipitation forming alumina crystals
four stage Bayer process involving: The liquor is further cooled to allow the alumina to be deposited
1. Digestion dissolving the bauxites alumina content in solid form as alumina hydrate crystals. Crystal growth is
Finely ground bauxite is mixed with recycled hot caustic soda assisted by seeding the liquor with previously precipitated fine
solution under pressure. This dissolves the alumina content of the grained alumina crystals. The finished mix of crystals is settled
bauxite and the solution is then cooled in a series of flash tanks. from the liquor stream and separated. The spent liquor is returned
to Digestion where is it re-heated, fresh caustic soda added and
2. Clarification settling out and separating undissolved
then used to dissolve more bauxite as it starts another circuit on
impurities
its continuous journey around the plant.
The undissolved impurities are allowed to settle as a fine mud
in thickening tanks. The caustic soda is recovered by washing 4. Calcination high temperature drying of alumina
this bauxite residue (red mud) through several stages before the The hydrate crystals are washed and calcined at temperatures
pumping the red mud to waste storage dams. The solution of exceeding 1000C. This forms the dry white aluminium oxide
alumina in caustic soda (the liquor) is further clarified by filtration powder, alumina, which is cooled and conveyed to storage sheds.
with the aid of lime. (Source: Queensland Alumina Limited pamphlet)

The impurities bauxite often result in a high concentration of iron in the liquor
and consequently leads to a high iron content in the precipitated
The impurities are often more important to consider than the alumina as there is insufficient seed to enable the reprecipitation
alumina grade because of their detrimental effect. Silica is the of the iron. The two main iron oxides are haematite and goethite.
most commercially important impurity in bauxite as generally Haematite
the more silica in the bauxite, the higher the amount of caustic Iron oxide - Fe2O3
soda consumed in the refining process and the higher the loss of
Goethite
alumina to the red mud tailings in the desilication product (DSP).
Iron hydroxy-oxide - FeO(OH)
The two main sources of silica in bauxite are kaolinite and quartz.
Can contain some Al2O3
Kaolinite When fine grained, it can be associated with slow or poor
Kaolin - Al2Si2O5(OH)4 or Al2O3.2SiO2.2H2O settling of red muds.
100% reacts (dissolves) in both low and high temperature Anatase and Rutile - TiO2
refineries Associated with scaling inside refining equipment which
Quartz reduces plant efficiency and increases maintenance costs.
Silicon dioxide - SiO2 Can increase caustic usage in high temperature plants
Reacts (dissolves) at temperatures above 200C Essentially, they remain insoluble and end up in the red mud.
0% reacts in low temperature refineries and a portion reacts Organic Carbon
in high temperature refineries. The percentage depends on Organic matter is broken down as part of the Bayer process
refinery conditions. and forms sodium oxalate.
The iron oxides essentially pass through the refinery process Increases operating costs by reducing plant efficiency and
unchanged. They either remain insoluble or react and reprecipitate lowers alumina purity. Alternatively increases capital cost by
and end up in the red mud. However, very low levels of iron in adding an organic removal facility, e.g. oxalate plant.

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alsglobal.com Technical Note 3
Drilling and sampling of bauxite deposits
As bauxite deposits are usually extensive, relatively thin (most average <10m thick) and
close to the surface, drilling is usually a series of shallow vertical holes set out on a regular
grid. It would be rare for drill holes to exceed 50m depth with drilling at most deposits being
much shallower than this. Consequently, sample intervals are small with sub metre sampling
being common. Sample sizes are also small meaning that little or no sample preparation is
required at the drill site other than splitting of the larger intervals down to the appropriate
subsample size, usually a couple of kilograms to be sent to the laboratory for analysis.

Sample preparation and analytical methods at the laboratory

Once at the laboratory, sample preparation for DSO bauxites is (aluminium-silica compounds or 3[Na2O.Al2O3.2SiO2.2H2O]Na2X).
usually limited to drying, weighing, crushing, sub-sampling and The total amount of alumina that is extractable in solution from
grinding the sample to less than 75 microns. For bauxites that are bauxite in the Bayer process is called the Total Available Alumina
subject to beneficiation, the laboratory preparation will include a (TAA). It is made up of two parts:
screening step as well as additional drying and weighing steps
THA Trihydrate Alumina. This is the alumina that is
and the calculation of a percentage yield.
extracted in a low temperature refinery.
Although bauxite comprises a mixture of minerals, the industry- MHA Monohydrate Alumina. This is the extra alumina that
standard analytical method for reporting the composition is by will be extracted in a high temperature plant.
elemental analysis, expressed as metal oxides. This analysis
The relationship can be simply expressed as TAA = THA + MHA
is usually determined by X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometry
(XRF). In addition, Loss on Ignition (LOI) is also measured by Similarly, not all of the SiO2 (silica) present in the bauxite causes
Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA). This determines the loss caustic soda loss in the Bayer process. The part of total silica which
of mass due to volatiles that are driven off when the sample reacts with caustic soda and forms sodalite complex through
is heated from 105C to 1000C (i.e. after the removal of free sodium silicate route is termed as Reactive Silica. Thus, the non-
moisture). reacting component of total silica with caustic soda is also known
as Non-Reactive Silica.
The sum of the major oxides (Al2O3, SiO2, Fe2O3 and TiO2) and LOI
usually sum to greater than 99% for bauxites. Trace elements In a low temperature refinery, reactive silica = kaolinite. In a high
make up the remaining percentage. temperature refinery, reactive silica = kaolinite + partial quartz.

Bauxite = Al2O3 + SiO2 + Fe2O3 + TiO2 + LOI + trace elements In addition to XRF and TGA LOI analysis, ALS also offers additional
characterisation methods such as organic carbon, reactive silica
The major oxides reported are usually referred to as Total
and available alumina analysis (see the table below). However,
Al2O3, Total SiO2, etc. However, this information by itself can be
when requesting an available alumina and/or reactive silica from
misleading as several minerals can contribute to each oxide
the laboratory, it is important to understand if the bauxite being
value. For example:
tested will be going to a high or low temperature refinery as the
Total Al2O3 - gibbsite, boehmite, diaspore + clay minerals digestion temperature for the analysis needs to be specified.
(kaolinite)
ALS can also provide TGA loss of mass at multiple temperatures to
Total SiO2 - clay minerals (kaolinite), quartz assist in confirmation of various mineral phases.
Not all of the Al2O3 (alumina) is available for making aluminium Multi-screen sizing to determine the optimum screen size for
as some is in the clays and is lost in the Bayer process to the DSP recovery and subsequent wet beneficiation are also available.

ANALYTES & RANGES (%) DESCRIPTION CODE

Al2O3 0.01-100 MgO 0.01-40 SrO 0.01-1.5
BaO 0.01-10 MnO 0.01-31 TiO2 0.01-30 ME-XRF13n
CaO 0.01-40 Na2O 0.01-503 V2O5 0.01-8 (normalised)
Fused disc XRF
Cr2O3 0.01-10 PxO5 0.01-23 Zn 0.01-106 ME-XRF13u
Fe2O3 0.01-100 SiO2 0.05-100 ZrO2 0.01-1.5 (un-normalised)
K2O 0.001-6.3 SO3 0.01-12.5 Total 0.01-110
Furnace or OA-GRA05x
Loss on Ignition
Thermogravimetric Analyser (TGA) ME-GRA05
Total Organic Carbon (Non Carbonate Carbon) TOC by Combustion Furnace C-IR17
Microwave digestion, chemical ME-LICP01
Reactive Silica and Available Alumina
separation/ICP-AES analysis# ME-LICP02
#
Digestion temperature, caustic strength and sample/caustic weight ratio to be specified by client
Technical note compiled by John Bower, OBK Consulting Pty Ltd

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