The Bakhuis Mountains () are a mountain range in central Suriname, spanning 110 kilometres. The mountain range form of the Northern part of the

Wilhelmina Mountains The Wilhelminagebergte () is a mountain range in the district of Sipaliwini in central Suriname. It extends about from west to east. It is named after Queen Wilhelmina. The Wilhelminagebergte is part of the Tumucumaque Uplands of the Guiana Shie ...

, and the mountains and its village were named after the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

explorer and

Royal Dutch East Indies Army The Royal Netherlands East Indies Army ( nl, Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger; KNIL, ) was the military force maintained by the Kingdom of the Netherlands in its colony of the Dutch East Indies, in areas that are now part of Indonesia. The ...

officer . It is situated in the

Sipaliwini Savanna The Sipaliwini Savanna is a protected area and nature reserve in Suriname. The reserve is located to the south of the Sipaliwini River in the far south of the country. The reserve measures 100,000 hectares, and has been a protected area since 1972 ...

District of Suriname. The

Bakhuys Airstrip Bakhuys Airstrip is an airstrip near the village of Bakhuys and the Bakhuys Mountains (''Bakhuys Gebergte'') in Suriname. There is rising terrain to the south. Charters and destinations Charter Airlines serving this airport are: See also ...

is nearby the village. The Bakhuis Mountains have rich deposits of

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO ...

, as well as

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

and

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

. In 1974, a new mineral named ((Mg, Fe²⁺)₃Al₄BeSi₃O₁₆) was found in the mountain range. The Bakhuis mountain range is an area of 2800 km² and contains a large concession area for mining bauxite, in which both the Surinamese company and foreign exploitation companies are interested. Ecologists fear destruction of jungle area when the mining commences. In the second half of the 20th century there was already a plan to economically exploit the area: the West Suriname Plan, centered on the mining of bauxite in the Bakhuis Mountains. After Suriname became independent of the Netherlands in the 1980s, however, the implementation of this plan was discontinued. A specially built railway line was built in 1972, connecting the Bakhuis Mountains with

Apoera Apoera, also Apura, is a town in western Suriname. The village has a population of 777 people as of 2020. It is the final destination of the Southern East-West Link. north-west on the other side of the Courantyne River lies the Guyanese villag ...

, however the railway line was never put into use and was abandoned in 2002.{{cite web, url=https://www.internationalsteam.co.uk/trains/surinam05.htm , title=West Suriname Railway, Apoera, website=International Steam, access-date=6 May 2021

References

Mountain ranges of Suriname