Bauxite was named after the village of Les Baux by Pierre Berthe, the French geologist who had found the ore in the nearby village. He was the first to discover that bauxite contained aluminium.

BAUXITE PRODUCTION IN THE WORLD 2020

Sl No.    COUNTRY    IN Thousand tons

1.    Australia    110000

1.        Guinea    82000

2.        China    60000

3.        Brazil    35000

4.        Indonesia    23000

5.        India    22000

6.        Jamaica    7700

7.        Russia    6100

8.        Kazakhstan    5800

9.        Saudi Arabia    4000

10.        Vietnam    4000

11.        Malaysia    500

12.        Other countries    8857

Although demand for aluminium is increasing rapidly, bauxite reserves, currently estimated at 40 to 75 billion metric tons, are projected to last for centuries. Guinea and Australia and India have the three largest proven reserves. Approximately 70 percent of the world’s bauxite production is refined through the Bayer chemical process into alumina. Alumina is then refined into pure aluminum metal through the Hall–Héroult electrolytic process.

Production and reserves

More than 160 million metric tons of bauxite are mined each year. The leaders in bauxite production include Australia, China, Brazil, India and Guinea. Bauxite reserves are estimated to be 55 to 75 billion metric tons, primarily spread across Africa (32 percent), Oceania (23 percent), South America and the Caribbean (21 percent) and Asia (18 percent). The United States has small amounts of bauxite ore located in Arkansas, Alabama and Georgia. However, very little mining is done in the United States today.

Indian reserves 

Odisha alone accounts for 51% of country's resources of bauxite followed by Andhra Pradesh (16%), Gujarat (9%), Jharkhand (6%), Maharashtra (5%) and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh (4% each). Major bauxite resources are concentrated in the East Coast bauxite deposits in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

As of 2020, India had bauxite resources of around 656 million metric tons. The proven reserve is 3896 million tons. This meant that the country had a share of over two percent in global bauxite reserves. About 77% are of metallurgical grade and 4% are of chemical/refractory grade. 

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