Deposit types/Aluminium, Gallium

Laterite-type bauxite

Aluminium-rich weathering crust, mainly gibbsite and boehmite.

What it is

Aluminium-rich weathering crust, mainly gibbsite and boehmite.1

How it forms

Intense weathering on well-drained plateaus in warm, wet climates removes silica and leaves aluminium hydroxide.1

Host rocks

Weathered aluminous silicate rock.1

Where it forms

Plateaus in tectonically stable areas.1

How old

Mainly Cenozoic1

Story cards

Sources

  1. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Froth flotation and tailings by Nina111955, CC BY-SA 4.0.