Guinea overtook Australia as the world's biggest bauxite miner
Bauxite mine production, million tonnes, 2019 and 2024, the five largest producers. US Geological Survey.
- 1. By 2100, more than 1 in 3 people will be African
- 2. Nearly half the world's under-25s will be African by 2100
- 3. DR Congo is projected to outgrow the US by 2100
- 4. Kinshasa will soon be bigger than Paris and London combined
- 5. Two-thirds of the world's mobile money moves in Africa
- 6. Volcanic heat makes nearly 45% of the power Kenya generates
- 7. Africa's solar imports more than doubled since early 2024
- 8. DR Congo mines three-quarters of the world's cobalt
- 9. Nearly two in three people in Africa are still offline
- 10. Africa formally recycles less than 1% of its e-waste
- 11. Ethiopia added over a third of Africa's new renewable power
- 12. Nigeria's cities now hold more people than Japan's
- 13. Sudan now has the world's most people displaced at home
- 14. Nigeria now has almost 25 million more people than Brazil
- 15. Six of the ten fastest-growing big cities are African
- 16. Africa now has more hungry people than Asia
- 17. Six in ten child deaths now happen in sub-Saharan Africa
- 18. Rwanda spread electricity faster than any country since 2014
- 19. Nigeria now eats more rice than Japan
- 20. More sub-Saharan Africans now have mobile money than bank accounts
- 21. Sub-Saharan Africa's cities now hold more people than Latin America's
- 22. DR Congo tripled its copper mining in ten years
- 23. Nitrogen dioxide over Khartoum fell 39% after war began
- 24. Countries mostly without electricity fell from 33 to 15
- 25. Seven in ten West African mobile money accounts sit idle
- 26. Nigeria became the third-biggest sender of students abroad
- 27. Guinea overtook Australia as the world's biggest bauxite miner
- 28. DR Congo passed Chile in refined copper
- 29. Burkina Faso now sends half its exports to the UAE
Guinea's bauxite output in 2024, more than double its 67 Mt in 2019, ahead of Australia's 100 Mt.
Guinea's share of world bauxite mining in 2024, up from 19% in 2019. Australia, the leader in 2019, slipped from 29% to 23%.
USGS 2025 estimate for Guinea, vs 97 Mt for Australia: the ore for the world's aluminium now comes first from West Africa.
the numbers & method
| 2019 (Mt) | 2024 (Mt) | |
|---|---|---|
| Guinea | 67 | 142 |
| Australia | 106 | 100 |
| China | 73 | 81 |
| Brazil | 32 | 33 |
| India | 22 | 25 |
Claim types Fact · Estimate · Interpretation
2024 values: USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 (February 2026), table 'World Alumina Refinery and Bauxite Mine Production and Bauxite Reserves', thousand metric dry tons: Guinea 142,000; Australia 100,000; China 80,500 (USGS estimate); Brazil 33,000 (estimate); India 25,000; world 428,000 (rounded, excludes US production). 2025 estimates in the same table: Guinea 150,000; Australia 97,000; China 87,000; world 440,000. 2019 values: USGS Minerals Yearbook 2022, Bauxite and Alumina (advance release, August 2025), world production table: Australia 105,544; Guinea 67,000 (dry basis); China 73,320 (revised); Brazil 31,938; India 22,321; world 358,000 (revised). Earlier years in that table: Guinea 57,000 (2018), 86,000 (2020), 82,000 (2021), 100,000 (2022); Australia 95,948 (2018), 103,627 (2020), 103,056 (2021), 102,290 (2022). In 2022 Australia still led narrowly (102.3 vs 100.0 Mt); Guinea was ahead by 2024. USGS marks all Guinea values as estimates; China and Brazil 2024 are estimates too. Shares are progrss calculations (country ÷ world total, same edition). Takeaway 3's second clause is Interpretation.
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