11 Largest Producers of Bauxite in The World: 2020 Rankings

So who are the 11 largest producers of bauxite in the world? Well, read on to find out! It’s definitely not the United States, which has reserves of just 20,000 million tonnes, a paltry number when compared to the total global reserves exceeding 30,000,000 million tonnes. So I guess the US isn’t to blame for not featuring on this list as its reserves are quite limited. However, would the US have topped the list or featured in it even if it had sufficient reserves? That’s a tough question to answer, because the US has long adopted a policy of outsourcing work, as it’s much cheaper for the US to have countries with lax labor laws to mine and extract the materials, and then purchase the product from them and save money. This is why there is a huge gap between the wealthy and the poor in the US! The rich get richer by destroying the middle class and taking the money that would otherwise be used for better purposes elsewhere. Outsourcing jobs has become an identifying trademark of the United States, which is a sobering thought indeed.

Now that my rant is over, let’s move on to what exactly is bauxite? Bauxite is an aluminum ore, in fact the most important aluminum ore, and was first discovered in France in the 19th century. While it may not be well known to the general person, bauxite is an extremely important mineral. This is especially true for the US, where bauxite is the only raw material which is extensively used in alumina production on a commercial level. If you want to know more about the countries which produce the most aluminim, feel free to check out 10 largest aluminum producing countries in the world. While there are a few substitutes for bauxite, none of them are as economically feasible as bauxite, underscoring its importance.

In the United States, 5.1 million tonnes of bauxite were consumed in 2019, which is a significant increase from 2018, of almost 30%. The value of bauxite consumed was around $142 million. However, since the reserves in US are negligible, nearly all of bauxite is imported from other countries including some of the US’s biggest economic competitors, such as China.

So which countries are the biggest producers of bauxite in the world in 2020? To answer this question, we relied on the Mineral Commodity Summaries 2020. The report contained figures for both 2018 and 2019. We considered the ranking of each country based on both the years, to come up with a unique ranking which would not be susceptible to any implicit bias which can occur when using only one criteria. So without further ado, let’s take a look at the 11 largest producers of bauxite in the world!

11. Malaysia

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 500

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  900

10. Saudi Arabia

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 3,890

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  4,100

9. Vietnam

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 4,100

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  4,500

8. Russia

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 5,650

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  5,400

7. Jamaica

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 10,100

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  8,900

6. Indonesia

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 11,000

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  16,000

5. India

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 23,000

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  26,000

4. Brazil

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 29,000

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  29,000

3. Guinea

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 57,000

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  82,000

2. China

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 79,000

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  75,000

1. Australia

Bauxite production in 2018 (in thousand metric dry tonnes): 86,400

Bauxite production in 2019 (in thousand metric dry tonnes):  100,000

Topping the list of largest producers of bauxite in the world: 2020 rankings is of course Australia, which has the second biggest reserves in the world after Guinea.