Bauxite
a mineral which occurs in round, concretionary disseminated grains; is found extensively in France and other parts of Europe, and, in the United States, principally in Alabama and Georgia. The purest bauxite is called aluminum ore, because commercial aluminum is made from it. Beds of this mineral have been discovered in Alabama, Arkansas, and Georgia, and now that aluminum has been introduced rapidly into many of the economic arts, the mining of bauxite bids fair to become the basis for important industries in the Southern States. In Alabama the deposits known as the Cherokee and Calhoun, are near Jacksonville, and are hard on the outcrops, but after being cut into become soft and crumbly. White, gray, and red are the principal colors. In Arkansas the ore is found in Saline and Pulaski counties, and in the Little Rock region some veins are estimated to be 20 feet thick. The deposits are red, black, and cream colored, the first two predominating. In Georgia, the counties of Floyd, Polk, and Bartow, which are adjacent to the Alabama deposits, have been shown by government surveys to be rich in the ore, and experts agree that these counties and Cherokee, Calhoun, and Cleburne counties in Alabama, are almost wholly underlaid with beds, practically inexhaustible.