how do you get aluminum from bauxite?

Answer 1

It is an expensive process that involves electrolysis and some other technical terms.

Answer 2

First dissolve the bauxite in hot concentrated sodium hydroxide solution, probably under pressure. Iron oxides and other contaminants are insoluble or have different solubility and are removed as "red mud" You precipitate out high purity "alumina" aluminium oxide, Al2O3. The next step is smelting with carbon electrodes using an aluminium flouride flux at a very high current but low voltage. Molten aluminium collects at the bottom of the electrolysis "pot" and is cast into ingots while one one carbon electrode is burned away by the oxygen in the alumina. It takes an enormous amount of power and aluminium smelters usually have large coal fired power stations right next door. Aluminium has been called "congealed electricity".

Answer 3

Bauxite is an aluminium ore which consists largely of the Al minerals gibbsite Al(OH)3, boehmite and diaspore AlOOH, together with the iron oxides goethite and hematite, the clay mineral kaolinite and small amounts of anatase TiO2. It was named after the village Les Baux-de-Provence in southern France, where it was first discovered in 1821 by geologist Henri Rouvère.