L. Fituni, I. Abramova Resource Potential of Africa and Russia's ...

Though US totally depends on imports of bauxites to meet the
domestic demand, Guinea the world’s leading producer ranks only
third among the major exports of this minerals to the US after Jamaica
and Brazil, but is ahead of Australia, which ranks the forth.
Global bauxite resources are estimated to be 55 to 75 billion
tons, major part of which is concentrated in Africa (32%). The rest
is located in Oceania (23%), South America and the Caribbean
(21%), Asia (18%), and elsewhere (6%). In 2008, aluminum metal
was produced in 42 countries worldwide, including 13 EU Member
States. 12 Germany (13.4% of EU production) and France (9.5%)
were the largest EU producers of aluminum in 2008, followed by
Spain (9%), the United Kingdom (7%) and the Netherlands
(7.1%). 13 The largest foreign provider of aluminum for the EU
(2006) was the Russian Federation (27%), followed by Mozambique
(20%). Brazil and Norway each contributed 11% to aluminum imports
into the EU. The largest African supplier of aluminum metal to
the EU was Mozambique with 530,000 metric tons, which alone
provided one-fifths of total metallic aluminum imports of the United
Europe in 2006. 14
US domestic resources of bauxite are inadequate to meet longterm
U.S. demand, but the United States and most other major aluminum-producing
countries have essentially inexhaustible subeconomic
resources of aluminum in materials other than bauxite. 15
Domestic aluminum requirements in the US cannot be met by domestic
bauxite resources. Domestic nonbauxitic aluminum resources
are abundant and could meet domestic aluminum demand. However,
no processes for using these resources have been proven economically
competitive with those now used for bauxite. 16
Hence, nearly all bauxite consumed in the United States is imported.
Of the total, more than 90% is converted to alumina. Of the
total alumina used, about 90% goes to primary aluminum smelters
and the remainder went to non-metallurgical uses. In 2006-2010,
annual alumina production capacity was 5.75 million tons, with
three Bayer refineries operating throughout the year and one temporarily
idled. Domestic bauxite was used in the production of nonmetallurgical
products, such as abrasives, chemicals, and refracto-
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