Sources of Substance and Genetic Relation of Soil and Bauxite-Bearing Horizons in the Laterite Profile of the Weathering Crust (of the Fouta Jallon–Mandingo Province, Republic of Guinea)

Abstract

For the first time, a granulometric analysis of lateritic soils was carried out and the sources of the substance involved in the formation of the degradation zone in the bauxite-bearing laterite profile of the bauxite-bearing province of Futa Jallon-Mandingo were identified. Throughout the province, on the stony rocks of the lateritic covers, the soil horizon occurs everywhere—the uppermost element of the vertical profile of the weathering crust. In the soil horizon, most of the components become mobile, leaching processes predominate, and laterites are mobilized and redistributed. The study of these continental formations made it possible to establish the genetic relationship between the soil horizon of the weathering crust and the underlying bauxite ores, and to determine the degree of influence of soil composition on the processes of bauxite formation.