The first commercial extraction of alumina (Al 2 O 3) from bauxite has been attributed to Henri Sainte-Claire Deville in about 1854.. Soon after this, in 1888, Karl Joseph Bayer described what is now known as the Bayer Process, which led to a dramatic reduction in the cost of aluminum metal.
Bauxite Ore Extraction Process Bauxite Ore Extraction Methods. Bauxite is mined almost exclusively in surface operations. The most important and often used surface mining methods used to extract iron ore are open-pit and open-cut methods.
Alumina Extraction Problem. In the standard Bayer Process for refining bauxite to produce alumina, the dissolution of the alumina in the ore to form sodium aluminate is accomplished in autoclaves under high pressures varying from 70 to 200 pounds per square inch.
