"The aluminum-containing mineral dawsonite [NaAl(OH)2C03] occurs in vast amounts in association with Green River Formation oil shale of Colorado's Piceance Creek Basin. 1 ,2,3 The dawsonite is accompanied by smaller amounts of an aluminum hydroxide mineral tentatively identified as nordstrandite. These minerals could provide a source of extractable alumina in excess of six billion tons, enough to supply the total United States alumina requirements for ""hundreds of years and to free this country from its current almost total dependence on foreign sources. Piceance Creek dawsonite occurs almost exclusively"" in microcrystalline form in intimate mixture with the other components of oil shale rather than as discrete beds. It is believed that recovery of the aluminum content can best be accomplished by base extraction of the porous spent shale remaining after production of the shale oil by retorting. At retorting temperatures dawsonite undergoes thermal decomposition and so the success of the extraction will depend on the solubility of the aluminum containing product formed on heating. Smith and Young tentatively identified the aluminum compound produced at 3S0°C as chi alumina and concluded that at higher temperatures gamma alumina, a less soluble form, was produced Furthermore, they believed that gamma alumina formation occurred below the temperature at which reaction of the dawsonite products with other oil shale minerals would take place. However sufficient data was not acquired to firmly establish this interpretation. In view of the above, the initial thrust of the research reported on herein was focused on identifying the aluminum containing products obtained on heating pure dawsonite at temperatures from 300 to 800°C, the range encountered in oil shale retorting. The tentative conclusions of Smith and Young including the formation of a less soluble alumina form at higher temperatures proved to be incorrect. This finding dictated a change in the direction of the research toward a study of the reactions of dawsonite with other oil shale minerals in dawsonitic oil shale. The details of the research carried out on this project are described in the following sections on the synthesis of dawsonite, the thermal decomposition of pure dawsonite , the solubility of alumina obtained by heating pure dawsonite, the solubility of alumina from heated dawsonitic oil shale and the solid state reactions which occur on heating dawsonitic oil shale."