Bauxite is an aluminium ore found in deposits around the world.
Once the ore is mined out of the ground, the red bauxite rock is crushed and refined into a white alumina powder, using what is known as the Bayer process. This alumina powder is then smelted into aluminium metal.
Australia is the world’s largest producers of bauxite. We mine bauxite at our Australian Worsley Alumina mine as well as at our Brazil Alumina Mineracao Rio do Norte (MRN) mine.
An overland conveyor links our Worsley mine in Western Australia’s south west to the refinery, 50 kilometres (km) away. It is the longest of its kind in Australia, and a great engineering feat. This conveyor belt passes through 42.5 km of forest, crosses 29 roads and two rivers. Travelling at 25km/hour and carrying 3,400 tonnes of bauxite every hour, the conveyor could load a semi-trailer in about 30 seconds.