Evolution of Bauxite Accumulation in the Phanerozoic

The first Phanerozoic bauxite appeared in the Early Cambrian in isolated areas of fold belts during their peneplenization. Commercial deposits of high-quality bauxite were formed in the Northern Urals during the Eifelian. In the Frasnian, bauxite accumulation expanded to the Central Timan. The number of known Devonian deposits does not exceed two dozen, and their total reserves are on the order of one billion tons. In the Early Carboniferous, bauxite accumulation shifted to the platforms of the Northern Hemisphere. Bauxite formation continued throughout the Middle Carboniferous on the Chinese and North American platforms, and up to the Early Permian in Korea. The number of deposits increased dramatically (hundreds), and their total reserves increased to four billion tons. Deposits of Mesozoic bauxite gravitate to fold belts and, within them, to the epi-Hercynian and epi-Kimmeridgian platforms of the Northern Hemisphere, the total number of known deposits being more than 1000. Most of them are small, but the bauxite quality is rather high. The total aluminum reserve of Mesozoic bauxites (3.3 billion tons) is less than those of the Paleozoic, while the number of Mesozoic deposits is greater. Bauxite accumulation in the Cenozoic took on a grandiose scale (85% of the world’s total reserves of about 100 billion tons). It was caused by the expansion of areas of leveled land with a tropical climate, abundance of precipitation, and organic matter, which led to the formation of many large and super-large bauxite deposits. In general, the evolution of bauxite accumulation during the Phanerozoic occurred in increasing pulses, resulting in an uneven increase in the areas and capacity of bauxite deposits with time.