What we do

Pure Aluminum from Icelandic Energy

The CO2 footprint of our aluminum production is one of the lowest in the world. Well-trained workforce of 600 men and women makes sure the production process runs smoothly. The key to achieving pure, low-carbon aluminum is to use socially and environmentally responsible suppliers, and to run our smelter with maximum efficiency. Well maintained equipment, training, constant monitoring and attention to every detail of results in an end product with the lowest environmental impact in its category: Pure aluminum.

Bauxite and aluminum oxide

Our main raw material is aluminum oxide, often known under the name alumina, a compound of aluminum and oxygen. It is a grey-white fine-grained sand that we import in double amount of the aluminum that we produce. Aluminum oxide is made from bauxite, a red mineral commonly found and easily processed in Australia, Guinea, South-America and many places in Europe. The aluminum oxide is so fine-grained that we can literally vacuum it up from the vessel and to a storage silo and from there all the way to the pot rooms, in a closed system.

Pot Rooms and Rodding Shop

Every pot contains 20 electrodes that are replaced every 30 days. The electrodes are attached to the anode rods in the rodding shop before they are established in the pots. Every new electrode weighs approximately 1200 kilos but gradually dissipates and after use weighs approximately 250 kilos. The electrodes are transported back to the rodding shop where the remains are cleaned from the anode rods, crushed and sent abroad where they are recycled as material for new electrodes. Every new electrode is attached to the anode rod and the process is repeated.

The Casthouse

Every pot produces approximately 1.5 tons of aluminum per day. The aluminum is transported to the casthouse where the metal is collected into furnaces which each can hold 60 tons. When the metal has reached its optimal temperature (720°C) the furnace is raised and the metal poured into casting moulds and moulded into 22 kilo slabs. The slabs are then bound in stacks that weigh approximately a ton and transported in that form to the markets in containers.
We have started construction on a new casthouse at Grundartangi where we will produce aluminum billets. Click here for futher information

Slabs and Alloys

Our main product is pure aluminum that is sold in international markets and used for all kinds of manufacturing. Most aluminum products that we know — cans and various kinds of packaging, construction materials, car rims, bicycles and computer cases — are made from alloys where aluminum is the most dominant ingredient but other metals are combined with the aluminum to make it stronger, increase the carrying capacity, increase or decrease the melting point or create other special characteristics. The most common metals used in alloys are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon and zinc.

Efficiency — Teamwork — Integrity

Our goal is to be an excellent company and a safe and good workplace.

In Grundartangi since 1997

Norðurál in Grundartangi is among the largest aluminum plants in Europe, with an annual production of 317.000 tons and approximately 600 employees. With Norðurál, Icelanders convert a fragment of the country’s power to a 600 million dollar export product while at the same time promoting the use of environmentally friendly energy sources and materials for vehicles, packaging and numerous other things.

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