Aluminium Life Cycle

Aluminium is the ideal recycling metal. In the remelting process, only a small percentage is lost when it oxidises as aluminium oxide. Increased recovery, dismantling and sorting of products at the end of their lifecycles results in an increasing proportion of aluminium being recycled. During its lifecycle, aluminium can be reused for the same application. Aluminium is unique compared to other materials, since its characteristics never change.

From Bauxite to recycled metal
There is plenty of raw material for the production of aluminium. No less than 8 per cent of the Earth’s crust consists of aluminium compounds in different forms.

Bauxite
The most important raw material in the aluminium production process is bauxite. Known mineable deposits of bauxite have been estimated as corresponding to 200 to 400 years’ production at current rates. (This does not take into account increased use of recycled metal.) Bauxite, which is created when certain aluminium bearing rocks decompose, consists of oxides of aluminium, iron and silicon.

Alumina (Al2O3)
The extraction of alumina from bauxite is often performed near bauxite mines. From the alumina, aluminium is then produced by smelting electrolysis, primarily in countries with a high availability of electricity. The production of 1kg of aluminium requires approximately 2 kg of alumina. The production of 2 kg of alumina requires 4 kg of bauxite.

Primary aluminium
The chemical characteristics of the element aluminium mean that a relatively large amount of energy, in the form of electrical current, is needed to reduce the oxide to primary aluminium metal.