Diasporic bauxite represents one of the major aluminum resources. The low alumina to silica mass ratio ( < 6) in most of the diasporic bauxites in China makes physical cleaning necessary to utilize this vast aluminum resource. Over the last three years significant progress has been made in developing a viable reverse flotation technology to upgrade the Chinese diasporic bauxite to an alumina to silica mass ratio greater than 10, so that they can be used as feed to the well-known Bayer process. This review article summarizes the progress in fundamental understanding and process development of the reverse flotation of Chinese diasporic ores. The review is organized by first presenting the crystal structures of the major components of the diasporic ores, followed by a discussion of effective collectors for clay gangue minerals and depressants for diaspore. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.