These composite products can then be cast or extruded to near-finished shapes to reduce costly machining. Typical Kitimat Works potroom Aluminum is used in products ranging from automotive applications to outer space. Transportation, construction, packaging and energy are all industries which have been changed significantly by using the properties of aluminum to their advantage. In nature, aluminum is always found in combination with other elements, never in its free state. Most often, aluminum is combined with oxygen, in the form of alumina.
Alumina is found in greatest concentration in a reddish earth called bauxite.
Bauxite is found in at least 30 tropical and sub-tropical countries. Four tonnes of bauxite yield approximately two tonnes of alumina, a fine white powder resembling table salt. Two tonnes of alumina reduce to one tonne of aluminum. Bauxite is not shipped to Kitimat. Kitimat Works imports alumina as a processed white powder.