Gibbsite, Al(OH)3, is an important ore of aluminium and is one of three minerals that make up the rock bauxite. Bauxite is often thought of as a mineral but is really a rock composed of aluminium oxide and hydroxide minerals such as gibbsite, boehmite (AlO(OH)), and diaspore (HAlO2), as well as clays, silt, and iron oxides and hydroxides. Bauxite is a laterite, a rock formed from intense weathering environments such as found in richly forested, humid, tropical climates.