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Extraction of Metals

Aluminium - Cost and Recycling.

Aluminium is the third most abundant element
in the Earth's crust after oxygen and silicon.
It is the most abundant metal but it is more expensive to produce
than iron because of the cost of the large amounts of electricity
which are needed for electrolysis - see moles.
About half of the aluminium used in the UK is recycled.

Extracting aluminium from recycled scrap requires only
about 5% of the energy needed to extract aluminium from its ore.
Collecting scrap metal and transport to the metal extraction plant
add extra costs.

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