v50 Steam/Premium information for editors
  • v50 information can now be added to pages in the main namespace. v0.47 information can still be found in the DF2014 namespace. See here for more details on the new versioning policy.
  • Use this page to report any issues related to the migration.
This notice may be cached—the current version can be found here.

DF2014:Bauxite

From Dwarf Fortress Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Bauxite
+ + + + + + +
= = = + + +
= = = + +
= = +
=
Uses

Location

Properties
Fire-safe Magma-safe
Contains

Wikipedia article

This article is about an older version of DF.

Bauxite is a dark-red sedimentary stone. Once highly prized as the only practical source of magma-safe mechanisms to create magma-proof devices, its importance has declined with the addition of many new heat-resistant forms of stone as well as the ability to make metal mechanisms from iron and steel. Nevertheless, it is still used by some long-time players for nostalgia, and its rare, bloody appearance makes it an interesting aesthetic choice.

Bauxite may contain both sapphire and ruby.

In real life[edit]

In real life, bauxite is an ore of aluminum. It is often called "hardpan" and the result of progressed chemical leaching of the soil via water. It's commonly found near the surface in well-aged and weathered soil, and is the world's primary source of gallium and aluminum. The technology required to extract these, however, is beyond the level possessed by any of Dwarf Fortress' civilizations.

Bauxite is composed primarily of the minerals gibbsite (aluminum hydroxide: Al(OH)3), boehmite (aluminum oxide-hydroxide: γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (aluminum oxide-hydroxide: α-AlO(OH)) (none of which are individually present in Dwarf Fortress). Bauxite forms by the weathering and mineralization of various aluminum-rich soils or clays. Despite the correspondence in-game, corundum, the mineral that makes up ruby and sapphire (aluminum oxide: Al2O3), does not form in bauxite.

Extracting aluminum from bauxite, even in the most primitive way, requires the use of the Hall–Héroult process: the electrolysis of bauxite which has been dissolved into molten cryolite. The development of this process transformed aluminum from an exceptionally rare metal to a cheap, utilitarian material. Dwarves have not yet discovered electricity, therefore they cannot make use of electrolysis to get aluminum from bauxite.

Bauxite.
Sedimentary
Igneous
Intrusive
Extrusive
Metamorphic
Ore
Economic
Other