Top 100 Countries by Bauxite Mine Production (2025) — Ranking, Concentration, and Aluminium Linkages
Top bauxite mine producers (2025 edition): the latest ranking snapshot
This ranking orders countries by bauxite mine production (crude ore) measured in million metric tons (Mt). The “2025” label reflects the publication year of the dataset; the latest reported production year inside that edition is 2023.
Bauxite sits at the very start of the aluminium value chain: bauxite → alumina (refining) → aluminium (smelting). Because refining and smelting are energy-intensive, the geography of bauxite output matters not only for mining trade flows, but also for where electricity-intensive processing can (or cannot) scale.
Table 1 — TOP 10 countries by bauxite mine production (2023, Mt)
| Rank | Country | Value (Mt) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guinea | 123.07 |
| 2 | Australia | 99.06 |
| 3 | China | 65.52 |
| 4 | Brazil | 32.03 |
| 5 | India | 23.36 |
| 6 | Indonesia | 9.890 |
| 7 | Russia | 6.868 |
| 8 | Jamaica | 5.988 |
| 9 | Saudi Arabia | 5.90 |
| 10 | Kazakhstan | 4.56 |
Chart 1 — TOP 10 bauxite mine production in 2023 (Mt), as reported in the 2025 data edition.
The TOP 3 producers (Guinea, Australia, China) account for a large share of total output, so bars are shown on a linear scale and values are displayed in Mt for comparability.
What the full distribution suggests
The 2023 bauxite map is shaped by a combination of geology and industrial positioning. A small group of very large producers sits far above the rest: Guinea and Australia alone represent more than half of recorded output, while China adds another large block. This creates a classic “steep head, long tail” pattern, where many countries produce bauxite at much smaller scales.
The leading producers do not necessarily occupy the same position in downstream aluminium. Some countries are resource-export oriented (strong in bauxite mining but smaller in smelting), while others combine domestic ore with imports to feed large refining and smelting systems. This matters because the bauxite → alumina → aluminium chain is constrained by logistics (bulk shipping), processing infrastructure, and reliable low-cost power for smelting.
In the mid-tier, output clusters around single-digit Mt levels. These producers can be pivotal on the margin: when a large supplier faces disruptions, the market often looks to the mid-tier for short-run flexibility, even though their volumes are insufficient to fully offset a major shock. In the long tail, small producers contribute little to global tonnage but can be strategically important for regional supply, blending, or specific ore qualities.
Tables and charts below use the producer list available in World Mining Data 2025 for 2023. The ranking is capped at “Top 100”, but the dataset reports 30 producing entries for this indicator in 2023.
Table 2 — Full ranking (30 reporting producers; capped at TOP 100), 2023 bauxite production (Mt)
| Rank | Country | Value (Mt) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guinea | 123.07 |
| 2 | Australia | 99.06 |
| 3 | China | 65.52 |
| 4 | Brazil | 32.03 |
| 5 | India | 23.36 |
| 6 | Indonesia | 9.890 |
| 7 | Russia | 6.868 |
| 8 | Jamaica | 5.988 |
| 9 | Saudi Arabia | 5.90 |
| 10 | Kazakhstan | 4.56 |
| 11 | Vietnam | 3.80 |
| 12 | Türkiye | 2.93 |
| 13 | Sierra Leone | 1.35 |
| 14 | Greece | 0.975 |
| 15 | Ghana | 0.960 |
| 16 | Venezuela | 0.900 |
| 17 | Iran | 0.871 |
| 18 | Malaysia | 0.577 |
| 19 | Bosnia-Herzegovina | 0.548 |
| 20 | Montenegro | 0.527 |
| 21 | Guyana | 0.524 |
| 22 | Laos | 0.275 |
| 23 | France | 0.120 |
| 24 | Cote d'Ivoire | 0.105 |
| 25 | Tanzania | 0.0614 |
| 26 | Pakistan | 0.0600 |
| 27 | United States | 0.0482 |
| 28 | Croatia | 0.0147 |
| 29 | Mozambique | 0.0055 |
| 30 | Colombia | 0.0028 |
Chart 2 — Bauxite output vs aluminium production proxy (2023, log scales)
Each dot is a country with both bauxite output and primary aluminium production reported in the same 2025 data edition (2023 values); aluminium production is used here as a proxy for smelter capacity.
Additional distribution view — Pareto curve (TOP list)
Pareto view: bars show production (Mt) and the line shows cumulative share of total bauxite output for the reported producer list.
How to interpret this ranking for economics, policy, and markets
Bauxite production rankings are often read as a simple “who leads” scoreboard, but the more durable signal is the structure behind the numbers: where supply is concentrated, how quickly output can adjust, and how tightly mining is coupled to refining and smelting. When the top of the distribution is steep, the global balance can become more sensitive to disruptions affecting a small set of jurisdictions or logistics corridors.
The bauxite → alumina → aluminium chain also embeds energy constraints. Smelting is among the most electricity-intensive industrial processes, so the relationship between ore origin and metal output is not one-to-one. Countries may export raw bauxite, import alumina, or specialize in smelting depending on power costs, infrastructure, and industrial strategy. That is why the same country can be high-ranked in bauxite but mid-ranked (or absent) in aluminium production, and vice versa.
From a policy perspective, the ranking can be read as a map of trade leverage (bulk raw material exports), industrial value capture (refining/smelting domestically), and exposure (import dependence). From a market-structure viewpoint, the key question is less “who is #1” and more “how large is the head of the distribution” and “how much supply sits in the long tail that is difficult to scale quickly.”
Policy takeaway
- Concentration matters: when a small set of producers accounts for most tonnage, supply resilience depends disproportionately on that set’s stability and logistics.
- Value chain is not automatic: bauxite leadership does not guarantee alumina/aluminium leadership because refining and smelting depend heavily on energy and infrastructure.
- Mid-tier producers are the margin: countries producing single-digit Mt volumes can influence short-run availability but rarely offset a major disruption alone.
- “Long tail” is strategic locally: small outputs can still be important for regional blending, specific ore qualities, or supply diversification.
- Read rankings with definitions: “crude ore” vs “contained content” and reporting methods can shift comparability across sources and years.
Table 3 — Concentration & structure (bauxite production, 2023)
| Metric | Value | Technical note |
|---|---|---|
| Total reported production | 390.90 Mt | Sum of country entries available in World Mining Data 2025 for 2023. |
| Number of reporting producers | 30 | Ranking is capped at “Top 100”, but only 30 producer entries are reported for this year/indicator. |
| Top 1 share | 31.48% | Share of #1 producer in total reported output. |
| Top 3 share | 73.58% | Cumulative share of the top three producers. |
| Top 5 share | 87.75% | Cumulative share of the top five producers. |
| Top 10 share | 96.25% | Indicates a strong head of the distribution; the remaining producers form a small long tail. |
| HHI (0–10,000) | ≈ 2,035 | Herfindahl–Hirschman Index computed from country shares (percentage shares squared and summed), aligned with the reported HHI rounding. |
Interpretation note: HHI near 2,000 typically indicates meaningful concentration. Here it is driven mainly by the scale gap between the top three producers and the rest of the list.
Primary data sources and technical notes
Download data tables & charts (ZIP)
Archive includes CSV/XLSX tables and PNG charts used in the bauxite production ranking (2025 edition).
