[aluminum Summit] the detailed data of the distribution of aluminum ore in the world, the current situation of aluminum mine development and trade are rare and worth collecting!

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With the vigorous development of aluminum industry, more and more demand has given birth to a strong international chain of investment, development and sales of aluminum ore. Hosted by SMM, the 2019 (14th) copper-aluminum summit-aluminum industry chain summit forum and aluminum industry brand event was held in Binzhou, Shandong province from April 11 to 13, 2019. At the meeting, du Liangqiang, deputy general manager of Shandong Lubei Enterprise Group Corporation, analyzed the distribution pattern and mining status of overseas bauxite resources.

Resource distribution of bauxite

China

Different from foreign laterite bauxite, ancient weathered crust bauxite in China is often associated with a variety of minerals. For example, coal seams and limestone are often found in overlying strata, and clay, iron ore and pyrite are often associated with ore-bearing rock series.

The distribution of bauxite deposits in China is relatively concentrated, ranking eighth in terms of 3% of the world's total reserves, and most of them are large and medium-sized deposits. Diaspore accounts for more than 98% of the country's total reserves.

There are not many bauxite deposits suitable for open mining in China, accounting for about 34% of the country's total reserves.

In terms of distribution, the reserves of Shanxi, Guizhou, Henan and Guangxi together account for 90.9% of the total reserves of the country. The bauxite deposit in Shanxi has an area of about 67000 km sq. the proven bauxite reserves rank first in the country, and the total amount is estimated to reach 2 billion tons.

The main deposits in China are Xiuwen Xiaoban in Guizhou, Xiaoyi in Shanxi, pingguo in Guangxi, Zunyi in Guizhou and so on. In 2014, China became the second largest bauxite producer in the world with an output of about 47 million tons.

Distribution of bauxite abroad

I. Asia Pacific region

Australia: the annual output of aluminum ore is nearly 70 million tons, ranking first in the world, with reserves of about 9.265 billion tons, accounting for 21% of the world's total reserves, ranking second in the world. The mining area is mainly divided into two parts:

The reserves of: Weipa, Gove (in the north are about 3.9 billion tons, belonging to Rio Tinto RTA);. Pisolite Hills (reserves are about 500m tons, belonging to Kepp alumina Cape Alumina); The Aurukun, Cape Bougainiville, Mitchell Plateau (reserves are about 3.5 billion tons, belonging to Alcoa AWAC). Most of the Sanshui deposits in these places are "Sanshui ores with low monohydrate deposits" with a monohydrate content of about 3.5 per cent.

West: Huntly&Willowdale, North Darlings, Boddington and other mining areas, the national average aluminum oxide content is 43.6%, silicon dioxide 4.5%, aluminum-silicon ratio is more than 9.6. among them, the high-quality aluminum content in Queensland can reach 51.8%. Most of the western mining areas are low-alumina and low-silicon deposits. Taking Dalingshan mining area as an example, the content of aluminum oxide is between 40% and 42%, and the content of silicon dioxide is between 1% and 3%.

Bauxite in Tasmania, Australia, is also mature, but it may not be competitive if it produces only 40-42% of the bauxite as it does at present.

India: bauxite reserves are about 2.39 billion tons. It accounts for 3% of the world's total reserves, ranking sixth in the world, and the mineral deposits are mainly distributed on the east and west sides of the subcontinent. Among them, the eastern part accounts for about 74% of the reserves. Mainly bauxite, located in four plateau areas ranging from 700m to 2100 m above sea level:

The content of aluminum oxide and silicon dioxide in (Eastern Ghats Orissa) of Donggaozhi Orissa is about 40% and 5%, respectively.

Andhra Pradesh (Andhra Pradesh) aluminum oxide content is about 46%, silica is about 2%, Bihar (Bihar) and Madhya Pradesh (Madhya Pradesh) and Megraine (Maikala Range);

Gujarat and Maharashtra, northwest of (Western Ghats);, are now important aluminum mining areas. (Nalco), the national aluminum company of India, has an annual production capacity of 2.5 million tons of bauxite and 1.5 million tons of alumina, making it the largest aluminum miner in India.

Vietnam: Vietnam's aluminum reserves are about 11 billion tons, accounting for 7% of the world's total reserves, ranking fourth in the world.

The northern part is monohydrate (the content of aluminum oxide is less than 50%, the content of silicon dioxide is between 5 and 10%);

In the south, except for a small part of water ore and kaolin, it is mainly trihydrate (the content of aluminum oxide is less than 49%, the content of silicon dioxide is between 10% and 15%).

The quality of bauxite in Dak Nong area is very high, and the ratio of aluminum to silicon is about 10. Exports are still being restricted.

Laos: bauxite deposits are mainly concentrated in the Parkson (Pacsong) area of Zambasai (Champasak) Province and the Dazheng (Dakcheng) area of (Sekong) in Sagong Province, which have been proved to be more than 400 million tons. The average content of aluminum oxide, silicon dioxide and iron is about 46%, 2% and 22%, respectively. It belongs to the typical Quaternary basalt laterite type weathered crust type Sanshui high aluminum low silicon high iron ore.

Because Laos is a inland country, shipping needs to rely on other countries, the shortage of transportation has greatly reduced the feasibility of its exploitation.

Cambodia: reserves of 344 million tons, mainly bauxite trihydrate, Al / Si ratio of more than 15, distributed in-Siem Reap,-Monorom City& O'Reang,-Haute Chhlong Plateau and other areas, the northwest mining area is close to Thailand, the eastern mining area is close to Vietnam, His Mundokiri mine is next to Vietnam, several of which are too far from the port of Sihanouk and are difficult to transport.

Fiji: bauxite reserves of 1 billion tons, diaspore, mineral deposits are mainly distributed in Vanua Levu, Wainunu, Lautoka-Ba, Tuvuca and other four areas.

Indonesia: Indonesia officially resumes bauxite exports in 2017. Mindan's high aluminum and high silicon, Xinhe island's low aluminum and low silicon, Kalimantan Dayan, Kendawang bank, Dabang and other places such as Chinalco low silicon goods have continued the red development rhythm of Qianshan Wandao after the export policy is clear.

Philippines: the degree of exploration is not enough, and the Muslim areas of the southern Philippines have long been at odds with the secularized Christian government of the Philippines, causing heavy thunder and little rain in the development of aluminum mines in the country. The quality generally depends on, the trade ore can maintain the aluminum oxide content more than 46%, the silicon dioxide below 6 is already considered a good mine, the whole has not been developed on a large scale.

Malaysia: bauxite resources in Malaysia are mainly distributed in Bukit Batu, Bukit Gebong, Lundu-Semantan in Shayue and Bukit Mengkabau in TanjungSeberang; Sabah and Bungai Rengit in Labuk Valley; Johor. In recent years, the Guandan area of Pengheng Prefecture has turned from the traditional iron ore producing area into an important producing area of aluminum ore, which has really put on a wonderful play on the top of the spare tire after Indonesia stopped exporting. However, as a result of extensive land acquisition and development, port pressure, car grabbing, environmental protection, and so on, the bauxite business has been criticized, and the government has had to temporarily ban exports and the partial release of some qualified miners, until the final ban on washing. Resulting in the current mine can not come out of the embarrassing situation. The situation in the Guandan area has also further spawned the expansion of production and the development of new mines in the old mining areas in southern Malaysia, such as Siwan and Xinshan near Johor, which are typical high-alumina, low-silicon, high-quality bauxite, especially with very low reactive silicon. It is comparable to the high-quality mines in Xiga, Indonesia.

II. South America and the Caribbean

Brazil: bauxite reserves are about 4.5 billion tons, accounting for 12 per cent of the world's total reserves, ranking third. 97% of the reserves are in the Amazon and the rest in the central and southeastern regions. The main distribution areas are:-Juruti, Paragominas, Porto Tiombetas, Manaus,-Barro Alto, Niquelandia Cataguases, Pocos de Caldas is a typical trihydrate, the content of aluminum oxide is 45-55%, which belongs to high-quality aluminum trihydrate.

Jamaica: reserves are about 2.5 billion tons and aluminum oxide content is about 50 per cent. Bauxite production is the second largest industry in Jamaica, where 60% of the country's foreign exchange comes from. The mining area is located in-St. Elizabeth District (St. Elizabeth), Manchester District (Manchester), Clarendon District (Clarendon), St. Catherine District (St. Catherine), Trelawney District (Trelawny), Santa Anna District (St. Anna)

The difficulty of mining settlement in Jamaica is the biggest problem, which has also seriously affected sales at a later stage.

Guinea: bauxite reserves are about 40 billion tons, accounting for 26 per cent of the world's total reserves. Bauxite is mainly distributed in-Sangaredi,-Debele,-Fria and other three areas. Aluminum trihydrate, very high taste, aluminum oxide content of more than 46%, silicon dioxide in about 2%, aluminum-silicon ratio of nearly 20.

Cameroon: reserves of about 300 million tons, mainly diaspore, is a high-quality ore, Al-Si ratio of more than 12.

Ghana: reserves of about 671 million tons, aluminum oxide content of about 49 per cent, silica of about 5 per cent. The mining area is distributed in-Nyinahin,-Kibi, Awaso and so on.

Enrichment and mineralization of bauxite

Bauxite deposits can generally be divided into paleo-weathered crust deposits and laterite deposits. The formation of paleo-weathered crust bauxite deposits goes through three stages.

The first stage is the terrestrial stage, which is formed by weathering under atmospheric conditions, which contains bauxite minerals, clay minerals, iron oxide minerals, etc., such as calcium laterite, laterite or laterite bauxite. This stage is the stage of in-situ residual accumulation or remote accumulation under atmospheric conditions.

The second stage is that the aluminum-rich calcium red soil layer, or laterite bauxite is inundated by seawater (or lake water), some are immediately submerged by seawater (or lake water), and some are inundated by seawater (or lake water) after a certain period of lithization. Gradually buried deep underground, after a period of evolution and transformation to form the original bauxite layer.

The third stage is the supergene enrichment stage, which is due to the transformation of surface water or groundwater due to the uplift of the original bauxite layer to the shallow part of the earth's surface, resulting in the loss of siliceous and enrichment of aluminum, resulting in the formation of bauxite deposits with rich grade and industrial value. The northern hemisphere continental weathered crust bauxite was mainly formed in the Carboniferous.

The formation of this type of bauxite deposit is related to the paleo-weathered crust of the eroded cross-section. Generally speaking, with a long period of intermittent erosion, especially if the underlying bedrock is carbonate rock or basic exhalation rock (such as basalt), which is rich in ore grade, thick ore layer and large orebody scale, the ore deposit is often rich in ore grade, thick ore layer and large orebody size, especially if the underlying bedrock is carbonate rock or basic exhalation rock (such as basalt).

As for laterite bauxite deposits, it is generally believed that they are formed by weathering of aluminous rocks under modern climatic conditions, mainly in low latitudes, where the weather is hot, rainfall is abundant, and basalts are easily weathered. Therefore, it can form modern laterite bauxite.

Current situation of bauxite trade

The present situation and Hot spot of Trade

With the increasing demand for bauxite in China, the import channels have also been diversified. For example, Australia, Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Fiji, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brazil, Jamaica, Dominica, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Guinea and India are all importing bauxite. There are also many new exploration discoveries around the world or traditional aluminum mines that have just been planned for export to China, such as Madagascar, Pakistan, Iran, the Turkish Balkans and the Australian island of Tasmania. In particular, in the past year, the environmental protection storm in China has affected the mining of domestic water mines, resulting in a sharp rise in the price of domestic water mines for a period of time, which, on the other hand, has opened up a new model for China to import monohydrate aluminum ores. If oil prices stabilize at medium-low levels, the feasibility of long-distance purchases of aluminium mines from Africa, America and Europe will persist. Of course, if the price of crude oil rises to a certain extent, it is entirely possible for the refined oil to rebound to a high level, which will not only push up the international freight rates, but also increase the mining costs in the mining area. This will curb long-distance transportation and push up ore prices.

Evaluation of ore quality

To measure the quality of bauxite, the following points should generally be considered:

The main results are as follows: (1) the Al-Si ratio of bauxite. The ratio of aluminum to silicon refers to the mass ratio of the content of aluminum oxide to the content of silicon dioxide in the ore. Generally speaking, the higher the ratio of aluminum to silicon is, the better.

(2) the content of aluminum oxide. The higher the content, the more beneficial to the production.

(3) the mineral type of bauxite has a great influence on the dissolution of alumina. Alumina in diaspore bauxite is the most easily dissolved by caustic alkali solution, followed by diaspore, and diaspore is the most difficult.

In practical application, the index to evaluate the quality of bauxite is mainly the content of effective alumina (available alumina) and active silicon oxide (reactive silica). Effective alumina refers to the oxidation force that can be dissolved from the ore to the solution under certain dissolution conditions. Active silicon oxide refers to the silicon oxide which can react with alkali in the production process and cause the loss of aluminum oxide and sodium oxide. Because these two oxides can exist in ores with a variety of mineral forms, under certain dissolution conditions, some minerals can react with alkali solution, others can not. Diaspore can not be dissolved under the condition of three water dissolution, and can not be included in the effective aluminum. Under these conditions, silicon in the form of quartz is inert silicon which can not react with alkali, and it is not included in the active silicon oxide. However, under the condition of dissolution of monohydrate ore, aluminum oxide in the ore can be regarded as all effective, and silicon can be regarded as all active. Iron oxide has little effect on production under Bayer process, but increases the amount of red mud. However, some of the iron minerals in laterite trihydrate bauxite and diaspore bauxite exist in the form of goethite and aluminum goethite, which have adverse effects on dissolution rate, sedimentation performance of red mud and alkali loss. The lower the content of other harmful impurities in the ore, such as sulfur, carbonate and organic matter, the better.

In the process of bauxite dissolution, alumina in the ore can not completely enter the solution due to the influence of dissolution conditions and ore characteristics. After the actual reaction, the ratio of aluminum oxide into sodium aluminate solution to the total amount of aluminum oxide in raw bauxite is called the dissolution rate of alumina.

Because bauxite contains many impurities, and these impurities are mainly silica, silica forms sodium aluminosilicate with alumina and sodium oxide during the dissolution of bauxite, among which, The mass of aluminum oxide and silicon dioxide is exactly the same, that is, A/S=1. Therefore, each reaction of 1kg SiO2 will cause the loss of 1kg Al2O3, in addition, it will also bring about the alkali consumption of sodium oxide of 0.608kg. It can be seen that the larger the A / S is, the greater the theoretical dissolution rate is, the higher the utilization rate of the ore is, and the lower the alkali consumption is. On the contrary, the lower the theoretical dissolution rate, the corresponding increase in the number of red mud, alkali consumption is also high, these are the basic knowledge that we should know to dabble in aluminum ore trade.

Determination of Mining and Trade Grade

There are obvious differences in mine development at home and abroad, foreign countries are basically green open-pit mining, low latitudes are lateritic weathered bauxite, the closer to the mainland, the higher the degree of fossilization, the higher the content of water, and the difficulty of mining. The stripping layer in open pit mining at low latitudes is generally about 2 to 3 meters, and some special areas may be up to 5 meters. The ore layer is a typical moving sedimentary layer, and there is almost no overlap of other minerals except with iron and other associated minerals. The thickness of ore bed ranges from 2 and 3 meters to 7 and 8 meters.

These indicators are very different from the trade mines formed, and it is ultimately up to the market to decide what the mining will look like to the market. In mine management, it is generally classified and stacked at different mining points, and then weighted average assembly is carried out according to the trade quality determined by the contract.

In the increasingly fierce environmental storm in China, the price of caustic soda fluctuates greatly, and caustic soda is the main part of the cost of alumina, which is also the reason why high silicon aluminum ore has been neglected as never before. The mine in Mindan Island, Indonesia, and the non-water washing mine in Guantan, Malaysia, have all encountered sales embarrassment as a result.

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