The Bauxion Process

Nothing Wasted

Bauxite to alumina, hematite and the critical metals in one closed acid loop.
No Bayer process. No red mud.

Inputs
  • Bauxite
  • Residue
Outputs
  • Alumina
  • Hematite
  • Scandium
  • Rare earths
  • Gallium
  • Vanadium
  • Titanium

Bauxion has been developed to replace the Bayer process. At a greenfield site it replaces Bayer completely. At an existing refinery it runs alongside, ameliorating the red mud already on the ground. Either way, one closed hydrochloric acid loop turns the whole ore into products and regenerates its own acid.

8

saleable products from a single ore

3

critical metals lead the value: scandium, neodymium and gallium

1

acid, regenerated and reused every pass

0

residue dams to build or monitor

Process

Six stages. One acid.

Fresh bauxite goes straight to the leach. Existing residue is washed first, then follows the same path. The hydrochloric acid is regenerated in the second hydrolysis and sent back to the leach. Only the first hydrolysis is optional, and it runs when the ore carries enough titanium to be worth it.

  1. 01Residue circuit

    Washing

    In
    Slurry, pH 10–12
    Out
    NaOH / NaAlO₂ liquor, washed solids

    The residue slurry is well-washed with water to recover soluble caustic and sodium aluminate, which is returned to the Bayer plant.

  2. 02Bauxite enters here

    Leaching

    In
    Bauxite or washed solids
    Out
    Chloride leach solution, silica residue

    The solids are leached in recycled strong hydrochloric acid to dissolve all the metals. The silica left behind has its own buyers, from high-purity silica to agricultural silica and cement additive.

  3. 03Only if Ti is high enough

    Hydrolysis 1

    In
    Chloride leach liquor
    Out
    TiO₂ solids, iron filtrate

    Run only when the ore carries enough titanium to warrant it. Many bauxites hold barely a trace. Where it is worth doing, a first hydrolysis recovers a 99 % pure TiO₂ pigment precursor.

  4. 04

    Hydrolysis 2

    In
    Iron filtrate
    Out
    Hematite, HCl recycle

    The iron chloride filtrate undergoes a second hydrolysis incorporating acid regeneration, wherein the HCl is recycled to the leach. The solids contain hematite and metal oxides.

  5. 05

    Re-leach

    In
    Hematite solids
    Out
    High-purity hematite, Al / Sc / REE / Ga / V solution

    The hematite solids are re-leached to strip the remaining aluminium, scandium, rare earths, gallium and vanadium into solution, leaving a high-purity hematite ready for sale.

  6. 06

    Recovery

    In
    Al / Sc / REE / Ga / V solution
    Out
    NaAlO₂, Sc₂O₃, REE oxides, Ga, V₂O₅

    The re-leach solution is separated into its products: sodium aluminate, scandium oxide, rare earth oxides including neodymium, gallium metal and vanadium pentoxide.

Products

Alumina first. Then the critical metals.

Every stream the loop separates is sold or reused, down to the silica and the acid.

Main product

Al2O3

Alumina

Made directly from bauxite, with no Bayer digestion and nothing left behind.

In bauxite
40–60 % as Al₂O₃
From residue
Sodium aluminate
Goes to
Aluminium smelting
26
Fe2O3

Hematite

The iron leaves as a saleable product instead of a dam

Goes to
Steel, pigment
21
Sc2O3

Scandium

One of the two highest-value streams

Goes to
Al-Sc alloys, fuel cells
60
Nd2O3

Rare earths

Neodymium leads, with the other REE oxides alongside it

Goes to
Magnets, motors, turbines
31
Ga

Gallium

Gallium metal

Goes to
Semiconductors, LEDs, solar
23
V2O5

Vanadium

Vanadium pentoxide

Goes to
Steel alloys, flow batteries
14
SiO2

Silica

The leach residue, with uses of its own

Goes to
High-purity and agricultural silica, cement additive
22
TiO2

Titanium

Recovered only where the ore carries enough to be worth it

Goes to
Pigment
Loop
HCl

Reagents

Acid regenerated in the second hydrolysis, caustic recovered in washing

Goes to
Back into the loop

Alumina content is typical of bauxite and varies with the ore source.

Impact

More from every tonne.

More per tonne.

Bayer keeps the alumina and discards the rest. Bauxion also sells the hematite, scandium, rare earths, gallium and vanadium, so every tonne mined earns more.

Nothing to impound.

A plant that never makes red mud never needs a dam to hold it. The iron leaves as saleable hematite instead of sitting in one, and the silica that remains has buyers of its own.

Critical supply.

Scandium, gallium and the rare earths are on the EU and US critical raw material lists. Bauxion recovers them from ore that is already being mined.

Nothing wasted

There is nowhere else to put it.

We live on a finite ball of rock floating in space. Mars and Venus are uninhabitable, and the nearest known exo-planet is 4.5 light years away. This is the only home we have, and its resources are all we get.

Digging up a tonne of rock, keeping a fraction of it and leaving the rest contaminated with toxins is not a plan. Any visiting alien would think we were bonkers. Bauxion is the business case for stopping.

The Earth seen from space, fully lit, with Africa, Antarctica and the Indian Ocean visible.
The Blue Marble. Photographed by the crew of Apollo 17 on 7 December 1972. NASA.

Existing residue

The same loop works on the old stockpiles.

Bauxion's demo plant will carry a second circuit for the bauxite residue refineries already hold. It is washed to recover soluble caustic and aluminate, then leached alongside fresh ore.

4Bt

of bauxite residue stored worldwide

175Mt

added every year by Bayer refineries

Contact

Bring us your bauxite.

Tell us about your ore or residue, the demo plant, or a partnership. We can run a full metal balance on a twenty-kilogram sample and show you the numbers behind it.

Material

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