Recovery of alumina from bauxite

In a process in which bauxite is digested in an aqueous alkaline liquor and the resultant red mud is flocculated with a flocculating agent and separated from the digestion liquor in a primary separation stage, the overflow liquor of the primary separation stage is optionally subjected to a secondary clarification stage in which suspended red mud particles are flocculated and separated from the liquor, and the red mud from the said primary separation stage and optional secondary clarification stage is then washed in a plurality of sequential wash stages in each of which the mud is washed with a wash liquor, flocculated with a flocculating agent and separated from the wash liquor, and the flocculating agent in at least one stage selected from the said primary separation stage, secondary clarification stage and the wash stages comprises a synthetic anionic polymeric flocculant, the improvement wherein the flocculating agent further comprises at least about 0.02 mg/l of a dextran having a molecular weight of at least about 500,000, wherein said synthetic anionic polymeric flocculant has a molecular weight of at least about 0.5 million, and is a water soluble polymer formed from 40-100% anionic monomer and 60-0% non-ionic monomer, and wherein the anionic monomer is selected from the group consisting of (meth) acrylic acid, (meth) allylsulfonic acid, vinyl sulfonic acid and 2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid.