The country with the highest amount of bauxite reserves worldwide in 2018 was Guinea. In that year, the reserves of bauxite in Guinea amounted to about 7.4 billion metric dry tons. Globally, bauxite reserves amounted to 30 billion dry metric tons.

What is bauxite?

Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a high content of aluminum. Generally, four metric tons of dried bauxite is required to produce two metric tons of alumina, which, in turn, provides one metric ton of primary aluminum metal. Bauxite can be used, for example, in cement, chemicals, face makeup, soda cans, dishwashers, siding for houses, and other aluminum products. Bauxite production amounted to 300 million metric tons worldwide in 2018, a slight decrease from 2017 which saw 309 million metric tons produced worldwide.

Global production and trade of bauxite

In 2018, Australia produced the largest amount of bauxite worldwide. In that year, the country produced 75 million metric tons of bauxite. Following Australia was China, which produced 70 million metric tons of the rock. In 2015, the total global import volume of bauxite was about 88.7 million metric tons, and the total exports of bauxite amounted to about 71.4 million metric tons that year.