Aluminium recovery and recycling. Raw materials

Starting from raw secondary raw materials (new waste or old scrap), the preparation technologies used are very similar to those used in the mineral industry to prepare complex ores.

The preparation of secondary raw materials is either carried out on the aluminum refinery's own site, or in independent units specialized solely in the preparation of raw materials, or on the site where these raw materials are recovered and collected: it's an activity that requires substantial and costly tools, as well as technical and commercial know-how.

This preparation can be divided into two phases:

• grinding, which reduces and densifies the raw material using a variety of tools whose power can reach and exceed 1,000 kW ;

• treatment, which separates the components of the raw material by means of various physical and physico-chemical processes.