Global bauxite production refused to blink in 2025, leading to an output exceeding 475 MT

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The global bauxite production for 2025 stands at an estimated 475-480 million tonnes, as per AL Circle research. The year has seen it all. From sanctions to initiations, hikes to deflations and a series of volatilities hitting the industry over and over. But the bauxite industry has pushed through all obstacles and maintained the year’s forecast. What all shaped the industry last year? Here’s a list of major to minor incidents that influenced global bauxite 2025.

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Courts, coffers and the opening bell of disruption

It began with a surge of capital into Guinea when Arrow Minerals secured USD 7 million to accelerate its Niagara bauxite and Simandou North projects, effectively announcing that despite rising political risk, West Africa remained the industry’s gravitational core. Within days, however, the optimism was punctured when Ukraine confiscated aluminium raw materials worth USD 50 million from a sanctioned Russian tycoon, dragging bauxite directly into the sanctions theatre that had until then been reserved for oil and gas.

January did not stop there. In India, Kerala’s Kasaragod district is prepared to auction bauxite mining rights eyeing USD 60 million in revenue, only for the state to reaffirm its resolve again in March with another round of bauxite block auctions, reflecting how domestic ore security had become political currency.

China’s quiet cheque book and Europe’s loud ambition

By late Q1, the market split into two temperaments, wherein on one side, China bought quietly, and on the other side, Europe invested loudly.