The Bayer Process for Manufacturing Alumina

​David D’Addario is a businessman with over 35 years of experience leading successful industrial companies. Many companies David D’Addario leads specialize in acquiring and refining metals and minerals.

One popular metal is aluminum, which comes from refined bauxite ore. Bauxite consists of roughly 40 to 60 percent aluminum oxide, which must be extracted from the other impurities in bauxite. Most bauxite ore is found in soft dirt mines but can also be found in hard rocks.

The Bayer Process is one of two main parts of the aluminum refining process and involves extracting aluminum oxide from bauxite ore. In the initial phase of the process, bauxite ore is mechanically crushed and then mixed with caustic chemicals in a grinding mill to produce a slurry, or watery mixture, containing tiny particles of ore.

The ore slurry is then heated and allowed to settle in a tank. The impurities sink to the bottom and produce what is known as red mud, which often contains sand and iron oxide. Special crystals are then added to a series of tanks so the aluminum particles, known as alumina, can attach to the crystals. These crystals are heated to very high temperatures to remove all traces of water from the alumina.

David D'Addario, New Day Aluminum LLC

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