Bauxite was found at Sematan in west Sarawak in 1949, soon after the formation of the Geological Survey Department. This stimulated the search for deposits elsewhere in Sarawak, Brunei, and North Borneo both by Government geologists making regional surveys of the three territories, and by the British Aluminium Company Limited, who prospected in Sarawak and North Borneo from 1950 to 1952. The search has not been particularly successful. In Sarawak, bauxite deposits have been found only in the western part of the country, and only two of them contain sufficient marketable bauxite to be workable at the present day. A little laterite is associated with some of the bauxite in west Sarawak, but not in economic quantities. Both bauxite and laterite (some of which is nickeliferous) occur in North Borneo, but little is yet known of their extent. No bauxite or laterite deposits with any economic potential have been found in Brunei.