Aluminium extraction process

Abstract From the Canadian patent

The invention provides a process for recovering aluminium values from aluminium-containing minerals such, as oxides of aluminium and aluminosilicates. The process involves heating an intimate mixture of an aluminium-containing mineral and a solid carbonisable organic material, preferably a fibrous cellulosic material so as to carbonise the organic material and chlorinating, the solid residue from the carbonisation step. The solid residue contains carbon in very finely divided form distributed throughout the aluminium-containing mineral The surface area, and reactivity of this carbon is much higher than that of powdered coal and the chlorination reaction thus takes place in a most efficient …