Red mud is a side-product of the Bayer process, the principal means of refining bauxite en route to alumina. The resulting alumina is the raw material for producing aluminium by the Hall–Héroult process. A typical bauxite plant produces one to two times as much red mud as alumina. This ratio is dependent on the type of bauxite used in the refining process and the extraction conditions.
More than 60 manufacturing operations across the world use the Bayer process to make alumina from bauxite ore. Bauxite ore is mined, normally in open cast mines, and transferred to an alumina refinery for processing. The alumina is extracted using sodium hydroxide under conditions of high temperature and pressure. The insoluble part of the bauxite (the residue) is removed, giving rise to a solution of sodium aluminate, which is then seeded with an aluminium hydroxide crystal and allowed to cool which causes the remaining aluminium hydroxide to precipitate from the solution. Some of the aluminium hydroxide is used to seed the next batch, while the remainder is calcined (heated) at over 1000 °C in rotary kilns or fluid flash calciners to produce aluminium oxide (alumina).
The alumina content of the bauxite used is normally between 42 and 50%, but ores with a wide range of alumina contents can be used. The aluminium compound may be present as gibbsite (Al(OH)), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) or diaspore (α-AlO(OH)). The residue invariably has a high concentration of iron oxide which gives the product a characteristic red colour. A small residual amount of the sodium hydroxide used in the process remains with the residue, causing the material to have a high pH/alkalinity, normally >12. Various stages of solid/liquid separation processes recycle as much sodium hydroxide as possible from the residue back into the Bayer Process, in order to reduce production costs and make the process as efficient as possible. This also lowers the final alkalinity of the residue, making it easier and safer to handle and store.