Bauxite Price per Ton: Chart and Drivers

Bauxite, the main ore of aluminium, was quoted at about US$72.5 to 73 per dry metric tonne (dmt) on 15 October 2026 for Guinean ore delivered to China (45% aluminium, 3% silica), according to Mysteel. Those are offers, down from about US$77 before the China holiday, and no deals had been concluded at that level. The last daily assessment we opened was US$71.5 per dmt on 28 August 2026. Australian ore with 50% aluminium was assessed at US$66.5 per dmt on the same day. There is no single world price. What you pay or receive depends on the grade, on who pays the freight, and on whether the deal is spot or under contract.

This page gives the benchmark prices with dates, the cost of mining and shipping a tonne of ore, a table of what a mine keeps after costs, and two calculators: one for a mine’s margin per tonne and one for the share of an alumina refinery’s revenue that goes on ore. Prices are quoted per metric tonne, as the trade does. One short ton is 0.9072 of a tonne, so US$71.5 per tonne is about US$64.9 per short ton.

Bauxite price per ton: the main benchmarks and how to read them

China took about 87% of seaborne bauxite in April 2026, according to Signal Ocean data reported by AL Circle, so the price that matters most is the cost, insurance and freight (CIF) price at a Chinese port. Mine-gate and port-loading prices are called FOB (the price with the ore loaded on the ship) and sit lower, because they leave out the sea freight. The table below puts the main benchmarks side by side. They use different grades and bases, so compare each one only with its own history.

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Quarterly average bauxite benchmarks, a year apart

US$ per tonne; FOB unless marked CIF

Two readings stand out. First, the US figure is less than half of the China CIF figure. The US takes most of its ore from Jamaica, with Jamaica at 60% of 2021 to 2024 imports, then Turkey at 16%, Guyana at 9% and Australia at 8%. It is a short, cheap haul and a different ore type, so it is not comparable with a long Guinea-to-China voyage. Second, Australian high-temperature ore averaged US$56 per dmt in the first half of 2026 against US$77 a year earlier, a fall of 27% (Rio Tinto, CM Group index), even though Guinean CIF prices recovered during the same period.

The USGS adds that the United States imported about 3.0 million tonnes of bauxite in 2025 (estimate) and net import reliance was above 75% of apparent consumption. For US market detail see our guide to bauxite mining in the USA.

Spot price, contract price and CIF, FOB, dmt: the terms that change the number

Spot price. The price of a cargo agreed now for delivery soon. It moves with freight, port stocks and refinery margins. In Mysteel’s August 2026 survey most standard-grade Guinean spot trades were near US$71.5 per dmt, with a few cargoes above US$72 for refineries that wanted a particular quality.

Contract price. A price set for a quarter or longer, usually from a formula or an offer by the miner. In August 2026 a mid-sized miner in Guinea’s Boffa area cut its long-term contract offer by US$1 to US$71 per dmt, still above what refineries wanted to pay. Metro Mining, which ships from Queensland, agrees its price and schedule about four to six weeks before each quarter starts, so its price lags the market. Its Q3 2026 CIF price was set about US$4 per dmt (9%) above Q2.

FOB and CIF. FOB is the price at the loading port. CIF adds freight and insurance. SMM reported that the gap between Guinean CIF and FOB widened from about US$24.5 to about US$30 per tonne during March 2026 as fuel and freight costs rose.

dmt and wmt. A dry metric tonne has the water removed. A wet metric tonne (wmt) includes moisture. Chinese price assessments are per dmt. Some producers, such as Metro Mining, report costs per wmt. Convert before you compare.

High-temperature and low-temperature ore. Gibbsite, the main aluminium mineral in most tropical bauxite, dissolves in a caustic solution at about 150 degrees C. Boehmite needs about 230 to 250 degrees C, so refineries must be built for it. Price series are labelled by the type a refinery can run, for example Australia high-temperature and Australia low-temperature. A minerals processing handbook from AusIMM explains the difference.

Bauxite price history: how the benchmarks have moved

Prices have swung hard in two years. SMM reported that Guinean CIF prices rose about 50% during 2024, from US$70 to US$105 per tonne, and Australian CIF rose about 52%, from US$54 to US$82, as alumina output grew and supply failed to keep pace. Then supply caught up. The Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) shows broad falls in the third quarter of 2025: China’s CIF price fell 17.4% from the quarter before to US$70.57 per tonne, yet stayed 6.2% above a year earlier.

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Guinea bauxite, CIF China, through 2026

US$ per tonne; dates in 2026; SMM to end June, Mysteel 45/3 assessment for 28 August

In 2026 the market traded in a narrow band. SMM’s first-half review shows Guinean CIF China near US$67.5 in early January, a low near US$60 in late February, a rise to US$68.5 by the end of March, and about US$71 by the end of June. Mysteel put the same grade at US$71.5 on 28 August. By 12 to 15 October, offers for standard 45/3 Guinean ore had eased from as high as US$77 per dmt before China’s National Day holiday to about US$72.5 to 73, with no deals reported at those levels, and C3 freight from Guinea had fallen to about US$32 to 33 per tonne (Mysteel via AL Circle, 14 and 15 October 2026). SMM’s view for the second half is a range-bound market: high refinery and port stocks limit gains, while quota rumours, rainy-season disruption and freight limit falls. Chinese port stocks were 32.7 million tonnes on 28 August, 14.1% above a year earlier and 5% below the early-July peak.

Rio Tinto reported the same pressure from its side. Its first-half 2026 results say weaker bauxite prices partly offset gains from aluminium, which averaged US$3,382 per tonne on the LME, up 33% on the first half of 2025. For a longer price story see our earlier look at the bauxite price trend and the alumina and bauxite market outlook.

What sets the price: grade, silica and the alumina link

The value of bauxite lies in its alumina (Al2O3) content. Silica (SiO2) is the main unwanted element, because it ties up alumina and caustic soda in the refinery’s waste. The AusIMM handbook says that in practice about 6% silica is the upper limit and about 50% alumina the lower limit for traded ore, and that refiners pay bonuses and penalties on alumina and silica levels that are generally confidential. It lists typical compositions of ore that is worth shipping a long way.

Source: AusIMM, Minerals Processing Toolbox, Chapter 16, typical compositions of traded bauxites. These are handbook values, not current mine assays. A deposit with lower alumina can still be worth mining if it sits next to a refinery: the Darling Range ore in Western Australia has only about 35% alumina, and the handbook calls it too low in grade to move far, but cheap to process locally.

The ore price is tied to the alumina price through the refinery’s margin. Alumina fell from US$434 per tonne (average of the first half of 2025, FOB Australia, Platts) to US$308 in the first half of 2026, according to Rio Tinto. When Chinese refineries lose money, they resist higher ore prices. Mysteel said in August 2026 that average margins in China’s alumina sector were still negative, which capped the upside for imported ore.

Bauxite cost per ton: mining, royalties and freight

Most of the cost of a tonne of ore on a ship is not in the pit. It sits in stripping the cover, hauling to the port, royalties and, for a long voyage, freight. Metro Mining reports unit costs for its Bauxite Hills mine in Queensland each quarter. The table shows three quarters in Australian dollars per wet metric tonne.

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Where the FOB margin went at one mine, April to June 2026

A$ per wet metric tonne; Bauxite Hills, Queensland

Source: Metro Mining quarterly activities report, April to June 2026. Site EBITDA is the FOB margin less site costs and royalties.

The table shows how thin a bauxite margin can get. Metro also says one-off demurrage and small-vessel costs cut the FOB margin by A$1.5 per wmt in the quarter. Between Q2 2025 and Q2 2026 the CIF price fell by A$18.1, or 22%, while site costs rose A$2.7. Metro blamed higher diesel prices (A$2.4 per wmt) and more spending on clearing and stripping (A$1.2 per wmt). Royalties fall when prices fall, so they act as a partial cushion. Metro’s report also says that Capesize freight from West Africa averaged around US$40 per dmt in the quarter, up from about US$25 before the Gulf conflict, and that about 80% of its own 2026 freight is fixed under long-term contracts.

For Guinea, Mysteel’s calculation in August 2026 put the full FOB cost at some mines above US$35 per dmt, with Capesize freight from Guinea to China reaching US$38 per tonne in the week before. SMM said the rate reached about US$36 at its peak and sat near US$30 to US$32 at the time of its first-half review. On 31 March 2026 SMM had Guinean ore at about US$38.5 FOB and US$68.5 CIF, so the gap for freight, insurance and trading premiums was about three-quarters of the FOB price. That is why freight and bunker fuel prices appear in nearly every price report.

Use the calculator below with your own numbers. It returns the margin per tonne at a CIF price you choose, the royalty, the yearly margin and the break-even CIF price.

▶ Explains surface (strip) mining, where the soil and rock on top are removed before the ore is dug. · 4:37

How much bauxite goes into a tonne of alumina and aluminium

The USGS gives a rule of thumb: 4 tons of dried bauxite make 2 tons of alumina, which make 1 ton of aluminium. The real ratio depends on the alumina content of the ore and the refinery. So a US$10 move in the ore price changes the cost of a tonne of alumina by about US$20 and a tonne of aluminium by about US$40, before any other cost.

At US$70 per dmt and two tonnes of ore per tonne of alumina, ore costs about US$140 for each tonne of alumina. Rio Tinto listed alumina at US$330 per tonne FOB Australia at 30 June 2026, so ore would be roughly 42% of that price. The ore price is CIF and the alumina price is FOB, and the dates differ by a few weeks. The second calculator lets you change the inputs.

Who sets the price: where the ore comes from

Supply is concentrated. The USGS estimates world bauxite output at 440 million tonnes in 2025, and Guinea alone at 150 million tonnes, up from 142 million in 2024. Australia is second, then China. Geoscience Australia’s preliminary tables put Australian output at 102.5 million tonnes in 2025, 2% above 2024; agencies’ estimates differ by a few million tonnes. Guinea also holds the largest reserves, 7.4 billion tonnes of the 29 billion tonnes estimated worldwide. Reserves are the part of the resource that can be mined profitably at current prices.

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Bauxite mine production, selected countries

Million tonnes, 2025 estimate

SMM reports that shipments from Guinea’s major ports reached 115.1 million tonnes in the first half of 2026, 26.5% more than a year earlier, while Australian shipments were 21.7 million tonnes, 3.7% lower after weather disruption at Weipa and other ports. Rio Tinto said its bauxite output recovered in Q2 and that around half of the 0.9 million tonnes lost to Q1 weather should be made up over the rest of the year. Chinese-affiliated companies controlled more than 55% of Guinea’s January 2026 shipments, according to AL Circle’s trade-flow data.

Policy is the other swing factor. The USGS notes that Guinea revoked the bauxite licences of a subsidiary of a UAE-based aluminium producer in August 2025 and reallocated the concessions to a state-backed company, and that Indonesia’s 2023 export ban cut its bauxite output sharply, although a new 1-million-tonne alumina refinery at Mempawah shipped its first alumina in April 2025. SMM says rumours of Guinean export quotas circulated in the spring and summer of 2026, but nothing was officially introduced as of its review. For country detail see our guides to the top bauxite producing countries and to Jamaica’s bauxite and aluminium exports.

Bauxite factories: how alumina refineries use the ore

The plants people call bauxite factories are alumina refineries. They crush the ore, dissolve the alumina in hot caustic soda (the Bayer process), and calcine the product into alumina powder. Smelters then turn that powder into aluminium. The International Aluminium Institute (IAI) counts about 100 operating refineries, producing about 134 million tonnes of alumina and about 150 million tonnes of residue a year in 2020, according to its guidance document.

Refinery news moves ore prices because a new plant adds demand for years. In Australia, mining began within expanded boundaries near Boddington in June 2025 to feed a 4.7-million-tonne-a-year refinery near Collie. In the US, the USGS reports that only one alumina refinery, at Gramercy in Louisiana (1.2 million tonnes a year), was running in 2025 on imported ore, and the 500,000-tonne Burnside plant stayed idle. China’s operating alumina capacity was 99 million tonnes a year on 27 August 2026, 4.7% above a year earlier, per Mysteel. See also our guides to alumina mining and refining and to bauxite, alumina and aluminium processing upgrades.

Red mud, bauxite residue and agriculture

Every tonne of alumina leaves behind residue, called red mud. The IAI says the average is 1.23 tonnes of residue per tonne of alumina, with a range from 0.55 to 2.21 depending on the ore. It is alkaline and must be stored in engineered facilities until the site is closed and rehabilitated. The IAI says use as a raw material for cement is a major part of what is presently used, but that most residue is still stored.

Raw bauxite is not a fertiliser either. The USGS lists the non-metal uses of bauxite as abrasives, cement, chemicals, proppants and refractories, plus a slag adjuster in steel mills. Some research is aimed at turning residue into soil for rehabilitating closed refinery sites. The IAI guidance describes a Rio Tinto and University of Queensland process that converts strongly alkaline and saline residue into soil, with vegetation cover in about two years, at the closed Gove refinery. That work is about restoring mine land, not about selling bauxite to farmers. Our note on how aluminium miners protect forests covers land rehabilitation in more depth.

▶ Walks through the seven environmental impacts of mining in plain words. · 2:31

What to check before you buy or sell bauxite

1. Get an assay and a basis. Ask for alumina, silica, moisture and the digestion type (gibbsite or boehmite), and agree whether the price is per dmt or wmt.
2. Fix the delivery term. FOB, CIF and delivered prices differ by the freight, which was US$30 or more per tonne from Guinea in 2026.
3. Compare with a benchmark of the same grade. Use a published CIF China assessment for 45/3 Guinean or 50/6.5 Australian ore, then adjust.
4. Decide spot or contract. A contract fixes the formula, a spot deal fixes only that cargo.
5. Check the refinery. A buyer needs a plant that can run your ore. Low-grade ore is worth little far from a refinery.
6. Check licence and export rules. Guinea’s licence reallocation and quota rumours show that policy can change the supply you rely on.
7. Work out your own margin. Put site cost, freight and royalty in the calculator at the lowest price you may face.

Where satellite images help a bauxite project

Bauxite is mined from open pits after the cover is stripped. The picture at the top of this page is a Sentinel-2 summer composite of the Weipa area in Queensland. Farmonaut builds views like this from satellite images. Farmonaut takes an area of interest as a KML, KMZ or polygon and screens it from satellite images before ground crews are sent; see our page on satellite-based mineral detection, our note on exploring for bulk deposits such as bauxite, the mining quote form or contact us.

▶ A short look at Farmonaut Mining Pro, the satellite platform that turns a licence boundary into a geological and economic picture. · 4:56

If this topic matters to you, read Manganese Ore Price per dmtu: Chart and Drivers next.

Related reading on this site: Bauxite Production Cost per Tonne: Mine Cost Breakdown.

Frequently asked questions

What is the price of bauxite per ton?

Mysteel reported Guinean ore (45% aluminium, 3% silica) offered at about US$72.5 to 73 per dmt CIF China on 15 October 2026 (no deals at that level) after a daily assessment of US$71.5 on 28 August 2026, and Australian ore (50/6.5) at US$66.5. US imports averaged about US$32 per tonne in 2025 (USGS estimate).

Why is bauxite cheaper in the US than in China?

The USGS figure is an f.a.s. (alongside ship) value for imports, mainly from nearby Jamaica, while the China figures include freight from West Africa or Australia. Freight alone was about US$30 per tonne from Guinea in 2026.

What is the difference between spot and contract bauxite prices?

A spot price is for one cargo now. A contract price is set for a quarter or more, often by a formula or a miner’s offer. In July and August 2026 the two were close, near US$71 per dmt (SMM monthly contract price US$71 in July; Mysteel spot about US$71.5 in late August). Earlier in the year they were further apart: at the end of March spot CIF was US$68.5 against a contract price of US$63.

How much does it cost to mine a ton of bauxite?

Metro Mining’s Queensland mine reported site costs of A$33.7 per wet tonne and royalties of A$5.8 in April to June 2026. Mysteel put full FOB costs at some Guinean mines above US$35 per dmt in August 2026. Costs differ with stripping ratio, haul distance and port.

How many tons of bauxite make a ton of aluminium?

About 4 tons of dried bauxite make 2 tons of alumina, which make 1 ton of aluminium, according to the USGS. The ratio varies with ore grade.

What grade of bauxite is traded?

Traded ore usually has at least about 50% alumina and no more than about 6% silica, according to the AusIMM handbook. Lower grades are mined near refineries.

Which country produces the most bauxite?

Guinea, at an estimated 150 million tonnes in 2025, followed by Australia at 97 million and China at 87 million (USGS, 2026).

Why do freight and fuel prices move bauxite prices?

Ore is cheap per tonne and travels far. In March 2026 the CIF-FOB gap on Guinean ore was about US$30 per tonne. When bunker fuel rose, producers needed higher delivered prices to cover it.

Can raw bauxite be used in agriculture?

Raw bauxite is not a fertiliser: the USGS list of bauxite uses (abrasives, cement, chemicals, proppants, refractories and steel slag adjustment) does not include one. Bauxite residue is alkaline, and research on turning it into soil is for rehabilitating refinery sites.

Where can I find current bauxite prices?

Mysteel and SMM publish Guinea and Australia CIF China assessments, and CM Group publishes the Australia high-temperature index that Rio Tinto cites. The Jamaica Bauxite Institute publishes a quarterly review of FOB and CIF averages.