The characterisation of bauxite ores, in particular, the iron mineralogy, is critical when determining their processability. In this study, various Jamaican bauxite ores have been characterised by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) utilising Rietveld quantitative phase analysis, and Mossbauer spectroscopy. The only forms of iron minerals found were crystalline hematite and crystalline alumino-goethite of relatively small crystallite size. The results obtained by XRD and Mossbauer spectroscopy were found to complement each other well, suggesting that for these samples, there is no indication of an appreciable amorphous iron phase present. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.