Very little of that bauxite was used for aluminum.
Apparently you're not the expert you think you are, in every subject known to man.
Says the pot to the kettle.
You just can't resist the chance for a snyde comment or insult, can you, God love ya...
For you and Barry, both:
(Thanks mmason for posting this)
However, since 1981, none of the bauxite mined in the US was used to make metallic aluminium. US bauxite is instead used for abrasives, high-temperature refractory materials, and as a high-strength proppant for hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells.
I think it's safe to say that by the late 60's very little was used for aluminum, if by the early 80's NONE was used.
I never even heard of bauxite till this thread, but I did do a little OBJECTIVE reading of more than one source of information.
FYI, it takes four tons of Bauxite to make one ton of aluminum, so at a rate of 25%, the US was responsible for very little of the aluminum producing bauxite in the world.
According to your source,:
Until 1942 the only company mining bauxite
in Arkansas primarily for use in the manufacture of aluminum was a subsidiary of
the aluminum Company of America [renamed the ALCOA Mining Company in
1945]. Other companies, including the American Cyanamid & Chemical Corp.,
the Norton Company, General Abrasive Company, Dulin Bauxite Company, and
Dixie Bauxite Company were mining bauxite for uses other than aluminum metal.
and goes on to say:
by the end of 1945 only ALCOA, Reynolds, and the group of
nonmetal producers active prior to 1942 remained as producers.
So out of that 38m tons you came up with, do you think there was enough bauxite for Alcoa and Reynolds to produce enough aluminum for ALL of manufacturing in the US at that time? Lets say they mined 25% of that 38m tons. That is 9.5m tons. 25% of that would be 2.37m tons of aluminum, over a period of how ever many years you calculated, for
ALL of aluminum manufacturing needs in the US.
Does that sound reasonable to you?
What's interesting is, although we were at the bottom of the list when it came to Bauxite mining, we were at the top of the list for alumina and primary aluminum production. Had to be getting that Bauxite from somewhere!
