Bauxite, an ore of aluminium, is a residual product of soil forming processes in tropical and sub-tropical climates. 

CHARACTERISATION AND USES
Bauxite, is an impure mixture of the aluminium oxide and hydroxide minerals gibbsite, boehmite and diaspore. Commercial grade bauxite contains more than 30% Al2O3.  Impurities include silica, oxides and hydroxides of iron, and small amounts of titanium oxide.

Bauxite is used mostly for the production of aluminium metal.  Small amounts are processed for use as abrasives, refractories, and as chemicals in water treatment, antiperspirants, and as a leavening agent in bread.

Aluminium is a silvery-white metal with a low density, high electrical and thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance, and good malleability.  It is commonly used in packaging, electrical goods, automotive and marine fabrication, and in light weight structural applications in the building industry.
 
Bauxite specifications for its three main  uses are:
 

GEOLOGY & OCCURRENCES
The largest deposits in Queensland occur in the Weipa district on the western side of Cape York Peninsula, where the bauxite developed under a stable tectonic environment in several deep weathering stages during the Tertiary.  Mining leases over bauxite deposits in the Weipa district extend  from 120 km north of the town (as far as Skardon River),         to 95 km to the south (to Aurukun) along a coastal belt that extends up to 50 km inland. 

Weipa bauxite commonly has a cover of  residual sand approximately 1 m thick.  The ore typically consists of pea sized nodules cemented to form a hard consolidated horizon 1 to 9 m thick.  Underlying the bauxite are substantial deposits of kaolin that comprise the pallid zone of the laterite soil profile.  
 
Other deposits in Queensland include those on the eastern side of Cape York at the Escape River.  No development has yet occurred in this area.  Minor deposits of bauxite also occur in southeast Queensland at Mt Tamborine and near Toowoomba.  The Mt Tamborine deposits were worked until 1967 when Weipa took over as the major bauxite supplier.

RESOURCES
Australia contains an estimated 22% of the world’s bauxite reserves and resources ranking second after Guinea followed by Brazil, Jamaica and China. 
Australia’s bauxite resource base is concentrated on Queensland’s Cape York Peninsular and the Darling Range in southwest western Australia.  
 
Comalco Limited’s Weipa reserves and resources as at 2000 were 288 Mt proved ore reserves, 341 Mt probable ore reserves and resources (excluding proved and probable reserves) were 340 Mt measured mineral resource and 3300 Mt indicated mineral resource.  At Ely 25 km north of Weipa, the Australian subsidiary of Alcan Aluminium Limited, Alcan South Pacific Pty Limited (ALSPAC), holds a resource of over 600 Mt bauxite, containing about 75 Mt of recoverable bauxite.  At Aurukun, Pechiney Pacific Pty Limited holds resources
of 480 Mt of dry beneficiated bauxite.