How Aluminium Is Made Animation ◆ <Validated>

From red dirt to white powder, and from a lightning-bolt bath to a silver slab, the aluminum is now ready to be shaped into anything from a foil wrap to a jet engine.

The crushed bauxite enters a high-pressure "pressure cooker" filled with hot caustic soda [1, 6].

The aluminum in the rock dissolves into the liquid, while the unwanted "red mud" (iron and silica) sinks to the bottom and is filtered out [1, 6]. How Aluminium is made animation

The electricity rips the oxygen away from the aluminum. The oxygen bonds with the carbon rods and floats away as CO2, while the pure, heavy molten aluminum sinks to the bottom of the vat [1, 6]. Act IV: The Final Form

This is a story of transformation—how a crumbly red rock from the earth becomes the sleek, silver metal in your soda can or smartphone. Act I: The Earth’s Rusty Treasure From red dirt to white powder, and from

This is the most dramatic part of the animation. Alumina is very stable; you can’t just melt it with fire to get the metal out. You have to "shock" it [1, 6].

The white powder is dissolved in a giant steel vat filled with molten cryolite (a mineral that helps it melt at a lower temperature) [1, 6]. The electricity rips the oxygen away from the aluminum

A giant "vacuum" ladle siphons the liquid silver from the bottom of the pot [1]. It is whisked away to a furnace where it's purified and mixed with other metals to make it stronger [1, 6]. Finally, it is poured into molds to create massive blocks called , or rolled into thin sheets [1, 6].