- Aluminium is by far the most common metal on the Earth’s surface. It makes up 8% of the Earth’s crust.
- Aluminium never occurs naturally in its pure form; in the ground it is combined with other chemicals as minerals in ore rocks.
- The major source of aluminum is layers of soft ore called bauxite, which is mostly aluminum hydroxide.
- Half of the soft drinks cans in the USA are made from recycled aluminum
- Alum powders made from aluminum compounds were used 5000 years ago for dyeing. Pure aluminum was first made in 1825 by the Danish scientist Hans Oersted.
- Aluminium production was the first industrial process to use hydroelectric power when Paul Heroult set up a plant on the river Rhine in 1887.
- Aluminium is silver in color when freshly made, but it quickly tarnishes to white in the air. It is very slow to corrode.
- Aluminium is one of the lightest of all metals. It weighs just one-third as much as steel.
- Aluminium oxide can crystallize into one of the hardest minerals, corundum, which is used to sharpen knives.
- Aluminium melts at 650°C and boils at 2450°C.
- Each year 21 million tonnes of aluminum are made, mostly from bauxite dug up in Brazil and New Guinea.
- Although aluminum is common in the ground, it is worth recycling because extracting it from bauxite uses a lot of energy.
Facts About Aluminum
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