How Is Aluminum Produced From Its Ore?
Abundant Metal Element jQuery(document).ready(function(){ jQuery(‘#jsArticleStep1 span.image a:first’).attr(‘href’,’http://i.ehow.co.uk/images/a04/c9/8q/how-aluminum-produced-its-ore-1.1-800X800.jpg’); }); Bauxite ore Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in the earth’s crust, making up about 8.3 percent of it by weight. Aluminum bonds easily with oxygen, so it is almost never found naturally in its pure state. Instead, aluminum is usually found in some form of aluminosilicate ore, such as feldspar, or in minerals such as beryl, garnet, turquoise, ruby and sapphire. The only real economical source of aluminum for refinement, however, is bauxite, an ore produced by the weathering of bedrock, often in tropical climates. Bauxite appears in abundance in Australia, Brazil, Ghana, Indonesia, Jamaica and Russia. 3 Steps in Processing There are three steps in converting bauxite ore into metallic aluminum. The first, called the Bayer Process, has the ore physically crushed to increase
