Forget Gold. Aluminum Is the Real Metal of the Moment.
This nickel and aluminum processing site in North Maluku, Indonesia, was once a breathtaking kaleidoscope of nature that provided sanctuary and sustenance.
Photographer: STR/AFPIt lacks the effervescence of copper and the geopolitical allure of rare earths – yet aluminum is the metal of the moment. Key to modern life and everywhere in the global economy, it’s entering a make-or-break phase: Either the world is sleepwalking into a supply crisis or further into the hands of China. Or, more worryingly, both.
The background is unsettling: Aluminum is trading at a three-year high, near $2,900 per metric ton. Although still far from the record, the current price is historically elevated, in the 5% top end of the 1990 to 2025 price range1. Look at annual averages, and this year is heading to the fourth-highest ever.
With political leaders’ attention firmly on copper and the likes of germanium and rare earths, aluminum hardly attracts headlines. Still, it’s truly crucial for the global economy. Planes and iPhones, window frames and soda cans, electric cars and appliances all depend on it. One can hardly imagine any further electrification without the greyish metal. With an annual consumption value of nearly $300 billion, it’s the largest of all non-ferrous metals. Only steel, a ferrous metal, is more widely used.
Compared to other commodities, aluminum compounds such as bauxite are copious in the Earth’s crust. But producing the metal in its pure form used to be such so complex and expensive process that until a century ago it was considered a precious metal. Napoleon reserved aluminum cutlery for his most important guests. When the Washington Monument was completed in 1884 in the US capital, it was capped with a 100-ounce aluminum pyramid; at that time, the metal was more expensive than silver. Only two years later, a new refining system was invented, and aluminum become commonplace.
Still, there’s a catch. Producing aluminum is a massively energy intensive process, so much that the metal is often known as “solid electricity.” To produce a ton of aluminum, smelters require the same amount of electricity that five German homes would consume in a year.