After that, as humans invented new innovations, the ability to extract aluminium advanced significantly. Two scientists, Charles Martin Hall, an American, and Paul Louis Toussaint Hèroult, a Frenchman, coincidentally invented the same method for extracting aluminium at the same time in 1866. This method involved dissolving alumina in molten cryolite (a compound of sodium aluminium fluoride) and using electricity to extract the aluminium, known as the “Hall-Héroult process,” still used in today’s aluminium production industry. This discovery significantly reduced the cost of aluminium production and led to its widespread application today.

Modern aluminium production involves 2 main processes: separating alumina or aluminium oxide from bauxite ore, and then extracting the aluminium metal from the alumina.

Currently, Australia is the world’s largest bauxite mining country, accounting for 40% of global production, followed by Brazil and Guinea. Once bauxite is mined, it cannot immediately be used to extract aluminium metal; instead, it must undergo the Bayer process to extract the alumina from the bauxite. Invented by the Austrian chemist Karl Josef Bayer, this process includes 4 sub-steps: digestion, clarification, precipitation, and calcination, resulting in alumina.

Next, extracting aluminium from the alumina typically occurs in industrial countries or countries with large dams because it requires a significant amount of electricity. Therefore, it relies on alternative energy sources like hydroelectric power, which is cheaper than fuel-based energy. This step uses the “Hall-Héroult process,” where electric current is used to extract the aluminium, as previously mentioned. The largest producers of aluminium include Russia, China, the United States, and Canada, along with smaller countries with many mountains and rivers, such as Norway, Tajikistan, and New Zealand.