ALCOA ALUMINUM PRODUCTION EDUCATIONAL FILMS BAUXITE MINING, REFINING & SMELTING 55284 

I've been working at the Rockdale plant since the beginning of 2005. I wish this video had been available when I first started and was figuring out how it all works. Fascinating stuff! Of course the plant is closed now and is being demolished. Being there nowadays is like sitting in on the autopsy of a friend.

I like the way we in America say Aluminum and not LA YOU MINI UM. In the early 90’s I had a lifted truck and i had to have Alcoa Rims... those were the real deal back then. Those on my 35x15.50 TSX SUPER SWAMPERS took my lift and overall look to my truck to a whole new level. I still love that basic Alcoa design of those rims; timeless design!

At Rockdale, at the end the pigs were three quarter ton picnic table looking chunks. We had flatbed picking up pigs, usually stacked 5 high in a single row five Stacks along the Centerline of the trailer. Flatbeds also picked up sheet and good which was one great long Extrusion massing about 20 tons. Sheet loaded on the slab, cut to the appropriate length by shag. Pigs loaded on the street next to the cast house, we could fit five trucks on the slab & the street between the security office at the entrance & the slab waiting to be backed in under the crane. 5 could fit on Travis Street between building 90 and the fire station. My job in the plant protection division what is Manning the main gate and logging in drivers as they arrived in no-man's-land how to cross the street between the smelter and the power plant. Some drivers would arrive as early as the evening before so as to be first in and first out. We'd have 50 or 60 flatbeds a day, plus another dozen or a score drive-ins picking up pigs at dock three . Then there were another dozen or so Vans making deliveries to the store room at building 45 and 64. My job was to call the drivers on the CB and invite them to come down to the gate and sign-in. Make sure they had the proper PPE and direct them where to go, keep track of how many were aware and get the next one as soon as there was room. We loaded from 7 in the morning till lunch, when there was an hour break, then we'd finish the day about 3 in the afternoon. In addition to that I was responsible for answering the telephone and either getting people to the right number or giving directions to get to the plant, answering all manner of questions. I'm also a medic and firefighter as well as private security, so if there was an emergency I had to go grab the ambulance or fire apparatus and take care of business... we had a fire brigade comprised of about 100 people, and a medical Department staffed by nurse and a doctor during business hours and a nurse on off hours. Patients were treated and stabilized at the plant before being transported to definitive Care at the hospital in town if necessary. The nurse and Doctor also provided Health Care in the form of physicals and checkups, there was an x-ray machine and all the necessities of a general practitioners office. We also were responsible for Fire, Health and security at the power plant and the mine, although the power plant and mine were eventually sold and the new owner provided their own. Good Times. I enjoyed it and I wish it was still in operation. I'm still there but now I'm just checking in a couple of dozen deliveries and another dozen scrap loads taken the demolition bits to the scrap yard.

If Pee Wee Herman and Jack Webb had a love-child it would be this guy.

спасибо

Fun fact in 1943 during WW2 75 % of the bauxite of the US was from South America Suriname then known as Dutch Guyana was the biggest distributor cause 60% of all Bauxite of the US came from Dutch guyana Suriname

Based on his comments I would say this dates from 1956 or 1957. He mentions the building of a plant starting in 1956.

SOMEONE CLAIMED THIS WAS IN THE 50'S, I WOULD NOT DOUBT IT,NO SAFETY GLASSES OR HARD HARD IN SIGHT. ... AAAHHHH,THE GOOD OLE DAYS!

His Aluminum bicycle is in the basement at the Alamo.

Fine aluminum powder can be hazardous.

He who smelt it.....

That poor man looks practically cadaverous! Get out of the office and get some sun, man!

I think you put the video out of order

This dude literally cannot be around a pile of alumina without fondling it.

This guy is just a narrator,his dialogue is parrot fashion,he really doesn't know what he's talking about.

Yes right, the toxic byproduct are not been recycled, they end in an big hole, which forms a lake, and finally ends in the sea.... go and check the Alcoa factory in Spain, San Ciprian. Go and google Earth 43º42’03”N 7º29’19W (O alto de Lago)