Home – Home – Jornals – Russian Geology and Geophysics 2010 number 12

The raw-material base of the Russian aluminum-producing industry is considered. The raw materials include common (boxites, nepheline syenites) and uncommon (synnyrites, anorthosites, power-and-heating plant ashes, kaolines) types of ores. With regard to many criteria (reserves and quality of ores, technology of their processing, etc.), the problem of alumina deficit can be solved by mining sillimanite group minerals Al₂SiO₅ (wt.%: Al₂O₃ = 62.9, SiO₂ = 37.1), namely, andalusite, sillimanite, and disthene. Their explored reserves converted to the final product (aluminum) exceed 400 mln tons. This will be enough for more than a hundred years on condition that aluminum will be produced in the present-day output (>4 mln tons in 2008). Almost all deposits can be explored by strip mining, with application of the gravity, flotation, and electromagnetic separation methods for aluminum concentration. The alumina content in concentrates reaches 60-62 wt.%. Only high-quality boxites and the above concentration methods can ensure such a high yield of Al₂O₃. Sillimanite group minerals can be processed together with nepheline ores by sintering or be used for the direct electrothermal production of silumin and aluminum, excluding the alumina production stage. The latter method is the most promising in Russia.