Aluminium for future generation: new bauxite resources identified in Guinea

Abstract : Guinea in West Africa is home to about 27% of the world's bauxite reserves – aluminium's principal ore. The well-known Sangaredi deposit alone represents other 80% of the Guinean bauxite production, with an annual production of about 14 Mt. Numerous potentially interesting plateaus have been inventoried but they were poorly explored and their resources remain poorly constrained. Two large areas have been explored between 2006 and 2009, one (Batafong) located north of Boke, the other one (Lelouma) located to the west of Labé. The most promising plateaus were first identified by combined gamma-ray spectrometry and GIS automated delineation constrain by pertinent topographic parameters. These plateaus were then explored by systematic Auger and core drilling completed by pits. These works led to the identification of around 1 400Mt of high quality gibbsitic bauxite grading more than 45 % Al2O3 and less than 2.6 % SiO2 with good content of available alumina and low content in reactive silica.