Primary Production of Aluminum
Primary Aluminum is made from a process of mining and refining common ores found all over the planet.
Forming Aluminum: A Life Cycle
How Aluminum is Produced & Processed
Bauxite is the world's primary source of aluminum and the principal ore of aluminum. Mostly found in tropical or subtropical areas, bauxite is a naturally occurring sedimentary rock comprised of a mixture of aluminum oxides and hydroxides. Also known as laterite soil, this reddish clay material is formed as a result of intense chemical weathering in tropical environments.
Bauxite Mining
The aluminum production process begins with the mining of bauxites.
Bauxite is the world's primary source of aluminum, and the principal ore of aluminum. Mostly found in tropical or subtropical areas, bauxite is a naturally occurring sedimentary rock comprised of a mixture of aluminum oxides and hydroxides. Also known as laterite soil, this reddish clay material is formed as a result of intense chemical weathering in tropical environments.
Alumina Production
Alumina is produced at special mills where bauxite is crushed, dried, ground, and mixed with a small amount of water. The resulting thick paste is then collected in special containers and heated with steam to remove most of the silicon content commonly found in bauxites.
Also known as AI2O3, or aluminum oxide, alumina is a white or nearly colourless crystalline substance that serves as the starting material for the primary production of aluminum metal, created via the smelting process.
Electrolytic Reduction Process
Aluminum is smelted and produced by electrochemistry via the Hall-Héroult process—by dissolving alumina in molten cryolite and electrolyzing the molten salt bath.
A form of electrolysis, the electrolytic reduction process is used for the extraction of highly electropositive metals such as aluminum. Alumina is poured into reduction cells with molten cryolite at 950OC. Electric currents are induced at 400 kA or above, causing the electrodes to react chemically and decomposing the materials.
Casting Primary Aluminum
Once smelted, the final step in the primary production process is to cast this pure form of aluminum into ingots. Aluminum ingots are pure, strong, durable, long lasting, and perfectly shaped for convenient shipping to customers where they can undergo further processing.
There are three types of casting used to produce ingots: die casting, permanent mold casting, and sand casting. Each method has their own advantages and disadvantages end is selected based on the customer's needs.
Processing Aluminum Alloys
Primary aluminum metal must generally be shaped to its required form for a vast majority of aluminum products to be made. Foundry alloys, rolling and extrusion... these are all examples of aluminum alloy processing.
There are many different types of alloy materials that can be made with aluminum and they each have unique advantages such as weldability, corrosion resistance, heat transfer properties and machineability.
Recycled/Secondary Aluminum
Compared to other metals, aluminum is unique in its ability to be remelted and reused an infinite number of times! Secondary aluminum is produced when recycled aluminum from various sources is processed into secondary alloys.
The secondary aluminum industry has become very important to the material's efficiency and its ability to recover previously unusable materials. For this reason, aluminum is one of the most sustainable metals in the world.
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