The Bauxion Process

Nothing Wasted

Bauxite to alumina, hematite and critical metals in one regenerative closed 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, remediating the red mud residue already on the ground. Either way, the proprietary regenerative closed loop turns Bauxite and Red Mud into value products and regenerates its own reagent.

8

saleable metals & REE as products from a single ore

3

critical metals & REE lead the value: scandium, neodymium and gallium

1

reagent, regenerated and reused every pass

0

toxic residue, no tailings dams to build or monitor

Process

Six stages. One Reagent.

Fresh bauxite goes straight to the leach circuit. Existing red mud waste residue is washed first, then follows the same path. The HCl is regenerated in the secondary hydrolysis and sent back to the leach. Only the initial hydrolysis is optional, and it runs when the ore carries enough titanium to warrant its recovery.

  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 product stream from the closed loop refining circuit is either sold, reused or regenerated, down to the high purity silica and the HCl.

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 as toxic red mud. Bauxion replaces Bayer without any red mud produced, only pure hematite, scandium, rare earths, gallium and vanadium, so every tonne mined earns more, sustainably.

No toxic residues.

A plant that never makes red mud never needs a tailings dam to contain it. The iron leaves as saleable hematite instead of mired in red mud, and the high purity silica that remains has its own vibrant market.

Critical supply.

Scandium, gallium and the rare earths are on the EU and US critical raw material lists. Bauxion recovers them from Bayer’s toxic remnant red mud that is one of the most serious and significant environmental contaminants worldwide.

Nothing wasted

There is nowhere else to put it.

Earth is a finite pebble island in the cosmos, with our closest habitable alternatives light-years away. Because this planet is our only home, resource extraction methods that destroy ecosystems and leave behind toxic waste are fundamentally unsustainable.

Digging up a tonne of rock, keeping a fraction of it and leaving the rest contaminated with toxins is not a viable plan. Any outside observer would find our current environmental destruction irrational.

Bauxion provides the ready to deploy commercial blueprint to end these damaging practices, eliminate legacy red mud stockpiles and prevent new waste.

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 toxic bauxite residue

The same loop works on the old red mud stockpiles.

Bauxion's demo plant is designed to carry a second circuit for the bauxite red mud residues refineries already harbor in environmentally degrading conditions. It is washed to recover soluble caustic and aluminate, then processed 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 red mud, your interest in the demo plant, or a partnership. We are open to a convivial conversation to accelerate a technology driven solution for a scalable sustainably economic opportunity. Let’s build a zero waste future together.

Material

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