ABSTRACT

The present work provides a concise examination of the historical global production levels of bauxite, primary aluminum, and secondary aluminum from 1850 to 2015. It also provides a contextual background to these data by summarizing the main etymological, technical, and commercial developments throughout most of this period. It further includes comprehensive data for the pricing of primary aluminum in both historical and 2015 dollars on the basis of economy cost. The syntheses of the data include the following:

Global production levels of bauxite based on three data sets

Global production levels of primary aluminum based on three data sets

Global production levels of secondary aluminum based on three data sets

Comparative global production levels of secondary aluminum based on five data sets

Prices of primary aluminum in historical US dollars and in US dollars indexed to 2015 values based on four data sets

Conversion rates for historical US dollars against 2015 values

In addition to the preceding global data, extensive pre-1900 data for French, Swiss, and US production levels and French and US prices of primary aluminum are compiled.