Beauxite Deposits in the Southern Part of the Malay Peninsula

Abstract

In 1942 the writer had the opportunity to travel the southern part of the Malay peninsula, and observed many beauxite deposits, and the following articles were noted.
1. Beauxites belongs to alluminous lateritic bauxite, and are found generally in the area of 25-50 m heigh above the sea level, but were never found over 70 m.
2. The parental rocks of beauxite are the various kind of rocks, such as shales hornfels of Triassic formation, granite peudo-granitic of dioritic rocks, their marginal rock faces, and so called Pahan Volcanic Series and its agglomerates.
3. The deposits are usually 1-2 m thick, and overlied by laterite beds are about 0-2 m of thick, and covered by the surface soils, about 0-1 m of thick.
4. A indistinct clino-unconformity is found between beauxite and laterite, and in some area they are covered unconformably by surface soils.
5. The are is of high quality : Al₂O₃ 55.0-58.0 %, SiO₂ 3.0-5.0% Fe₂O₃ 7.0-10.0 %, TiO₂ 0.2-0.5 %, Ig. Loss 25-30 %.
The are reserve is huge, among which about 16 million tons of are are in the Southern Coast Region, which is about 80 percent of the total reserve of Malay peninsula, and would meet the great expectation in the future.