What is the most common metal found on earth?

Aluminium is a chemical element with symbol Al and atomic number 13. It is a silvery-white, soft, nonmagnetic and ductile metal in the boron group. Aluminium is the most abundant metal element in the earth's crust.

It is so chemically reactive that native specimens are rare and limited to extreme reducing environments. Instead, it is found combined in over 270 different minerals.

About 41 million tons are smelted each year and employed in a wide arrange of applications. From auto bodies to beer cans, and from electrical cables to aircraft skins, aluminium is a very big part of our everyday lives.

A major breakthrough in aluminium production came in 1886 when Charles Martin Hall discovered that aluminium could be produced using electrolytic reduction. Until that time, aluminium had been rarer and more expensive than gold. However, within two years of Hall's discovery, aluminium companies were being established in Europe and America.

About 20% of all aluminium produced is used in packaging materials. Aluminium foil is a suitable packaging material for food because of it is non-toxic, whereas it is also a suitable sealant for chemical products because of its low reactivity and is impermeable to light, water, and oxygen. In the US alone, about 100 billion aluminium cans are shipped every year. Over half of these are eventually recycled.

More Info: www.thebalance.com

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44 Comments

Grant McIntosh

Good to see an American question setter using Aluminium instead of Aluminum.

Kath Thomson

bern, only gold, silver, copper and platinum occur in their metal state. All other metals, which easily combine with oxygen occur as oxides or hydroxides. Bauxite is a mixture of hydrous aluminium oxides, aluminium hydroxides, clay minerals, and insoluble materials which are forms of iron ore. The aluminum minerals in bauxite can include: gibbsite Al(OH)3, boehmite AlO(OH), and, diaspore, AlO(OH). The earth has 8% aluminium (in the form of bauxite) and 5% iron (in the form of oxides).

ukmcfry

I thought aluminium was an alloy.

djs

Irma Rivera, Got it.

Armadillo

Vaughan Smith, I understood it to be the mantle from an article I read some time back.

David Coe

I used to import raw aluminum from Russia and the Gulf States into Rotterdam for processing into window blind slatting.

terry makkm

Question is misleading. Should not be 'found on earth'.

Don Racette

Cheryl McMeekin Same for me.

d p catalano

This Q is not worded properly. 🤔

littledick

xanthus, But is it a metal?

Cheryl McMeekin

Lucky guess

Vaughan Smith

A lot of arrogant, ignorant comments. Aluminium is an abundant metallic element. As some people have already commented, bauxite is a mineral comprising a compound of aluminium & other elements; so are hundreds of other minerals. Kath Thomson has listed some of the metals that occur in their native or metallic state, but they are not the only ones; bismuth and mercury come to mind. The answer mentions that native Al metal is rare but does exist. It is perhaps true, though, that if you consider the Earth's core, iron & nickel may outweigh aluminium, which tends to hang around the crust.