Alumat Life Cycle
From bauxite mining to customized products and recycling, as a fully integrated aluminum company, we generate value across the entire life cycle.
Girl holding crumpled aluminum cans
Aluminum boasts a life cycle unmatched by few other metals. Its corrosion resistance and recyclability, requiring only a fraction of the energy used in primary metal production, make it an outstanding building material. Reshaped and repurposed, aluminum adapts to the evolving needs and challenges of different times and products.
How It’s Made Aluminium Value Chain
1. Bauxite Mining
Aluminum production commences with bauxite, a raw material containing 15-25 percent aluminum, primarily found in a belt around the equator. With about 29 billion tonnes of known bauxite reserves, and considering current extraction rates, these reserves are estimated to last over 100 years. Moreover, undiscovered resources may extend this time frame to 250-340 years.
2. Alumina Refining
Utilizing the Bayer process, alumina (aluminum oxide) is extracted from bauxite in a refinery. The alumina is then used to produce the primary metal at a ratio of 2:1 (2 tonnes of alumina = 1 tonne of aluminum).
3. Primary Production
The aluminum atom in alumina is bonded to oxygen and requires electrolysis to produce aluminum metal. This energy-intensive process is conducted in large production lines and emphasizes the use of renewable power. Continuous improvement in production methods is crucial to achieving our goal of carbon neutrality in a lifecycle perspective by 2020.
4. Fabrication
Alumat supplies the market with over 3 million tonnes of casthouse products annually, establishing us as a leading supplier of extrusion ingot, sheet ingot, foundry alloys, and high-purity aluminum on a global scale. Primary aluminum finds common applications in extruding, rolling, and casting:
- Extruding: Shaping aluminum into various forms using ready-made or customized profiles.
- Rolling: Exampled by the aluminum foil in your kitchen, aluminum’s extreme malleability allows it to be rolled into thin foils impermeable to light, aroma, and taste.
- Casting: Alloying aluminum with other metals enhances properties such as strength, brilliance, and ductility. Our casthouse products are utilized in automotive, transport, buildings, heat transfer, electronics, and aviation.
5. Recycling
Aluminum recycling consumes only 5% of the energy required for primary metal production. Additionally, aluminum doesn’t degrade through recycling, with 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced still in use. Our aim is to outpace the market in recycling growth, taking a leading role in the recycling segment of the aluminum value chain. By 2020, we aspire to recover 1 million tonnes of contaminated and post-consumer scrap aluminum annually.
