Secondary REE-minerals in the karst bauxites of the Bahoruco Peninsula (Dominican Republic)

Abstract

Rare earth elements (REE) are essential for numerous technological applications. Currently about 90% of the worldwide REE demand is supplied by China (Hatch, 2012), and therefore REE are defined as critical metals (Dutta et al., 2016). Bauxites, the main source for Al in the world, gained interest since they are capable of concentrating significant amounts of REE (Liu et al., 2016), and have been recently considered unconventional deposits for REE (Goodenough et al., 2017). Two types of bauxitic deposits are defined: a) lateritic bauxites (formed after intense weathering of an Al-bearing protolith), and b) karst bauxites (of controversial origin, hosted in carbonaceous rocks). One hypothesis of karst bauxite formation suggests dissolution of the carbonates, whereas the other implies an external contribution of Al-bearing minerals during or after carbonate deposition (Bárdossy, 1982).