Mineral Facts and Problems: 1960 Edition Page: 41
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41
ALUMINUM
PROBLEMSMaintenance of an adequate aluminum sup-
ply requires assured ore supplies as well as con-
tinuation of research on improving processes
for recovering the metal from various raw
materials. The industry is faced with the
problem of acquiring adequate quantities of
low-cost electric power or decreasing the high
energy consumption in producing aluminum.
Dusts and fumes in the effluent gases from
the aluminum reduction cell represent a loss
of alumina, carbon, and fluorides, and systems
that collect and scrub the effluent gases repre-
sent a large capital investment.
Inasmuch as the production of aluminum is
a semibatch process, the producers are faced
with the high costs inherent in such an opera-
tion.
Refractories used in furnaces for melting
scrap or alloying primary aluminum are at-
tacked or penetrated by the molten metal.
The recovery of aluminum from some types
of scrap is quite low. Fines and dusts con-
taining both metallic aluminum metal and alu-
minum oxide are discarded. Some of the phys-ical properties of aluminum, such as its poor
strength characteristics at elevated tempera-
tures, its softness in comparison to cast iron,
lack of corrosion resistance at high tempera-
tures or in contact with other metals, may be
obstacles to the use of aluminum in special ap-
plications. Typical of these applications are
engine blocks, nuclear reactors, and the skin on
supersonic aircraft.
Facilities which have higher operating costs
than modern plants or are poorly located with
respect to markets are closed down in time of
surplus aluminum supplies. Closing a plant of
this type results in the idling of a large capital
investment and may cause some economic dis-
location.
The high initial plant investment and the
difficulty of obtaining an assured long-term
alumina supply discourage potential aluminum
producers.
Small nonintegrated consumers of ingot or
semifabricated aluminum, numbering the thou-
sands, do not have assured supplies of metal.BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. ALLEN, G. L., VIETS, F. H., AND MCCABE, L. C.
Control of Metallurgical and Mineral :Dusts and
Fumes in Los Angeles County, Calif. Bureau
of Mines Inf. Circ. 7627, 1952, 79 pp.
2. ANDERSON, R. J. SECONDARY ALUMINUM. Sher-
wood Press, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, 1931, 563 pp.
3. BANNING, L. H., AND HERGERT, W. F. Experimen-
tal Production of Al-Si Alloys in a Three-
Phase Furnace. Jour. of Metals, vol. 7, No. 5,
May 1955, pp. 630-633.
4. BOCKMAN, O. C., AND WLEUGEL, J. Electromag-
netic Forces in Large Aluminum Furnaces.
Jour. of the Electrochemical Society, vol. 105,
No. 7, July 1958, pp. 417-420.
5. BRowN, HIRAM, AND ASSOCIATES. Aluminum and
Its Applications. Pitman Publishing Corp.,
New York, 1948, 338 pp.
6. BUSINESS AND DEFENSE SERVICES ADMINISTRA-
TION. Materials Survey-Aluminum. Wash-
ington, D.C., 1956, 318 pp.
7. CRONAN, C. S. Automation Comes to the Alumi-
num Industry. Chem. Eng., vol. 66, No. 5, Mar.
9, 1959, pp. 124--127.
8. EDWARDS, J. D., FRARY, F. C., AND JEFFERIES, ZAY.
The Aluminum Industry. Chem. Eng. Series,
McGraw-Hill, 2 vols., 1930.
9. FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF SAN FRANCISCO,
MONTHLY REVIEW. The Aluminum Industry-
Part I: Development of Production. August
1957, pp. 97-109; Part II: Growth of the
Market. October 1957, pp. 145-152; Part III:
Location Factors and Aluminum in the Pacific
Northwest. January 1958, pp. 6-13.
10. THE FIRST BOSTON CORPORATION. Aluminum, the
Industry and the Four North American Pro-
ducers. 1951, 79 pp.11. JOHNSON, A. F. Coal Looms As Low Cost Power
Source For Aluminum Production. Jour. of
Metals, vol. 7, No. 7, July 1955, pp. 796-799.
12. -- Metallurgical Problems Affecting the
Economics of Aluminum Production. Jour. of
Metals, vol. 10, No. 1, January 1958, pp. 31-34.
13. LEWIS, WINIFRED. The Light Metals Industry.
Temple Press, 1949, 397 pp.
14. MULLER, C. F. Light Metals Monopoly. Columbia
University Press, 1946, 279 pp.
15. THE ORGANISATION FOR EUROPEAN ECONOMIC CO-
OPERATION. The Secondary Aluminium Indus-
try in the U.S.A. Rept. of the Tech. Assist-
ance Mission No. 19, Paris, 1952, 93 pp.
16. PEARSON, T. G. The Chemical Background of the
Aluminum Industry. Royal Institute of Chem-
istry, 30 Russell Square, London, W. C. 1, Lec-
tures, Monographs and Reports, No. 3, July
1955, revised April 1956, 103 pp.
17. REESE, K. M., GARCIA, A. F., AND LEWIS, R. A.
Aluminum, Light Metals King. Industrial and
Eng. Chem., vol. 47, No. 10, October 1955, pp.
2066-2072.
18. U.S. DISTRICT COURT. Answer of Aluminum Com-
pany of America to Certain Interrogatories
Served on it by United States of America on
August 3, 1953, and November 13, 1953, as
Amended by Stipulation Dated March 2, 1954.
United States of America, Plaintiff, vs. Alumi-
num Company of America et al., Defendants.
For the Southern District of New York, Equity
No. 85-73, 58 pp.
19. VON ZEERLEDER, A. Attempts to Improve Alumi-
num Reduction Since Heroult and Hall. Jour.
of the Inst. of Metals, vol. 83, 25th Autumn
Lecture, 1954-55, pp. 321-328.
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United States. Bureau of Mines. Mineral Facts and Problems: 1960 Edition, report, 1960; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38790/m1/49/?rotate=180: accessed March 29, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.