Aluminium is produced from the mineral bauxite that is mined and refined using a chemical process into a white powder called alumina. Alumina is then smelted using electrolysis into aluminium metal. Rio Tinto produces bauxite, alumina and aluminium at operations in Australia with additional aluminium production in New Zealand and the UK. Rio Tinto also has interests in alumina production in Italy and bauxite in Guinea.

The strength of aluminium combined with its relatively light weight gives the metal a wide variety of applications. It is extensively used in the building sector (for example, in double glazed windows and doors) and in packaging (cans and foil). The largest and fastest growing use is in the production of motor vehicles, where aluminium's light weight contributes to significant fuel savings over a vehicle's life. Although slightly less effective at conducting electricity than copper, aluminium's lightness means that it is preferred in overhead power lines.

Over the past decade, growth in the use of primary aluminium worldwide has averaged just over three per cent a year. The use of secondary aluminium, that is, aluminium produced from scrap, has been growing at around five per cent a year since 1990. The advantage of secondary aluminium production over primary is that it requires only six per cent of the energy in the production process.

A disadvantage of secondary smelting is the emissions during the smelting process of dioxins and other impurities arising from the use of paint can lacquers. Aluminium, like iron, is extremely abundant in the earth's crust and there are no concerns for extended reserve availability. Rio Tinto's Weipa resource alone has the potential for some 300 years of production at current rates. The environmental challenge of aluminium lies more in the fact that the production of aluminium generates a large amount of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, as well as smaller amounts of other, more potent, greenhouse gases like PFCs that affect climate change.

These arise both from within the process of production itself and, where coal is used as the source of electrical power, from the power plants too. It should, however, be noted that more than half the world's aluminium is produced using hydroelectric power.