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Historical Availability of Metals: Before 1800's, Only 10 Were in Use
Historical Availability of Metals: Before 1800's, Only 10 Were in Use
kitchen utensils
cans & foil
aircraft & rockets
Window & door frames
60% less conductive than Copper but
used for high voltage transmission lines
Properties: light weight (low density); good tensile strength,
high resistance to corrosion
Digging for Bauxite
Digging up the bauxite
The size of the scoop
Bauxite Reserves:
1985 - 21 billion tons
1990 - 21.8 billion tons
1993 - 23 billion tons
2006 - 25 billion tons
Alcoa Aluminum
smelter in Texas
requires 36 million
pounds of coal to fuel
operations
per day
Australia is the worlds leading producer of bauxite.
In 2010, it produced 71.5 million tons
Aluminium Industry
16,700 Employees
50 Years of Industry in
Australia
5 Bauxite mines
7 Alumina refineries
6 Aluminium smelters
12 Extrusion mills (19 presses)
2 Rolled product plants
It a significant contributor the econonmy:
$5,055,402,000 in 2011
Factors Affecting Price
Abundance & location of ores
Cost of extracting the metal from the ore
Cost of transportation (eg. to smelter)
World-wide demand
Metal Price/tonne
Al $ 2 150
Cu $ 3 250
Au $ 17 000 000
Zn $ 1 360
Pb $ 1 070
Recycling
it can be recycled indefinitely 2/3 of the aluminum
ever produced since 1886 is still in use
This does not change the fact that between 1990 and
2000, 7.1 million tons of aluminum cans (only cans!)
were wasted enough to reproduce the worlds
commercial air fleet 25 times