Business View - August 2015 69
Advancing the agenda
of the “miracle metal”
It may be hard to believe, but at one time, aluminum was considered more rare
and precious than gold or silver - even though it’s the most abundant metal in
the earth’s crust, making up about eight percent by weight of the planet’s solid
surface. The reason that this relatively soft, durable, lightweight, ductile, and mal-
leable metal, prized for its ability to resist corrosion was so rare in its pure form,
is because the complexities of refining aluminum from its main ore, bauxite, and
the other oxide and silicate compounds where it resides, were not successfully
conquered until late in the 19th century.
But once the processes for extracting and refining pure aluminum had been per-
fected, far-seeing industrialists and businessmen were quick to recognize its su-
perior qualities. Today, aluminum has not only become a foundation of our coun-
try’s infrastructure, its uses and applications pervade every aspect of our lives.
From transportation, to packaging, to construction, to electrical transmission, to
utensils; in everything from window frames to rocket ships, from rolls of foil to
the International Space Station, aluminum and aluminum alloys can be found in
abundance. Aluminum was even selected as the material of choice for the cap-
stone of the Washington Monument!
Today, the American aluminum industry directly generates $65 billion in economic
output and indirectly generates an additional $87 billion in economic output each
year - that’s one percent of the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). It em-
ploys over 155,000 workers, and for each aluminum industry job, an additional
3.3 employment positions are created elsewhere in the economy, for a total of
670,000 U.S. Jobs.
The Aluminum Association of America is the non-profit organization, based in Ar-
lington, Virginia, that represents the county’s manufacturers of aluminum as well
and their many suppliers and vendors.
The Association was originally formed in 1933, after the U.S. Congress passed
the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), a measure of President Roosevelt’s
New Deal initiative, designed to help lift the country out of the Great Depression.
The Act required various industries to establish codes and guidelines in order
MANUFACTURING
