Chapter 899： East African Aluminum Industry

Chapter 899 East African Aluminum Industry

At the beginning of 1895, a delegation from the Tete Municipal Government arrived in Beira, focusing on the Mbeya Iron and Steel Research Institute and the Aluminum Materials Research Institute.

This time we came mainly for "electrolytic aluminum technology". Although the aluminum smelting plant has been established in Hinde, before Mozambique was divided into provinces, Hinde was still under the jurisdiction of Tete City, so the negotiation work was also handled by Tete City. The government does it for you.

Since the aluminum smelting plant cannot be established, Tete City can only focus on steel. Therefore, during the inspection, the Iron and Steel Research Institute and several steel plants in Mbeya City were the focus of the inspection group.

Representatives from Hindai Town and Tete City went to the Aluminum Materials Research Institute of Mbeya City together.

"Currently, the countries in the world that have mastered the cutting-edge technology of electrolytic aluminum are the United States, Austria-Hungary, France and East Africa. Our institute is the most authoritative institution in the field of aluminum materials in East Africa. We are currently promoting research on aluminum alloy products. There are already three types of Aluminum alloy material products with large-scale promotion value,” Director Eubisio introduced to several people.

The emphasis on basic materials science in East Africa can be traced back to the 1980s. After a slight improvement in higher education and under the leadership of some returning talents, several materials research institutes were established in East Africa in 1883, covering common metals, rare Metals, precious metals and other fields.

 Among them, the Mbeya Aluminum Materials Research Institute is one of the earliest national key research institutes established in East Africa, which Ernst paid special attention to.

After all, in the 21st century, aluminum is the most important metal after steel. The reason why we say this is just from the perspective of production. Aluminum will be the second largest metal mineral after iron in terms of future usage.

According to this idea, the main metal materials research in East Africa at that time were iron, aluminum, chromium, copper, manganese, lead, and zinc. These seven metals have established corresponding main research institutes. At the same time, East Africa has also established some comprehensive research institutes. Materials Research Institute, as well as many niche materials research institutes.

As for the resource reserves of chromite and manganese, East Africa is far ahead of the world, and resources such as lead and zinc are also relatively common. For example, Kabwe City is an industrial and mining city that started and developed based on these two metal elements.

In fact, East Africa has no shortage of the top ten metals in global production in later generations. Titanium, nickel, and zirconium, the top ten and bottom three, are also widely distributed in East Africa. African minerals are especially famous for non-ferrous metals and rare metals. If East Africa is included The world's number one gold mine also occupies an important position in the field of precious metals in East Africa.

Taking automobiles as an example, automobile bodies in the 21st century have begun to use aluminum alloys as the main carrier, which has the advantages of excellent ductility, light weight, and strength. Of course, it is mainly cheap and has high output.

 It’s just that many mineral resources today have not become mainstream minerals due to time and technology reasons, such as aluminum, the second largest metal element in the world in terms of production in later generations.

In traditional industries, including shipbuilding, machinery and equipment manufacturing, rail transportation, etc., aluminum has broad market prospects in various fields.

Of course, the reason why Ernst attaches great importance to aluminum technology breakthroughs is because emerging industries such as automobiles, aviation, aerospace, and electric power will be inseparable from aluminum products in the future.

The above seven major metal materials research institutes are also consistent with the national conditions of mineral resources in East Africa. East Africa does not lack iron, aluminum, copper and other common metal mineral resources.

The low output of aluminum has caused its price to remain high, so from this point of view alone, research on aluminum materials is very profitable.

Also, aircraft also widely use aluminum as the fuselage material. If it is a typical example like the MiG-25, which uses stainless steel as the main material, just pretend that Ernst did not mention it.

If titanium is the future metal for the 21st century, then aluminum is the future metal for the 19th century. The end of the 19th century was a critical period for breakthroughs in aluminum-making technology.

In the original history, in 1886, Hall of the United States and Ayrut of France obtained patents for the production of metallic aluminum using the cryolite-alumina molten salt electrolysis method at almost the same time. In this time and space, the four countries of Austria-Hungary, East Africa, the United States, and France achieved technological breakthroughs almost at the same time.

In fact, Austria-Hungary was able to achieve a breakthrough in this field and had a deep relationship with East Africa because this was a cooperative project between the two countries.

Jubisio, the director of the Aluminum Materials Research Institute in Mbeya, East Africa, is an East African student from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the early days of establishing his laboratory, he had a close relationship with the Joseph Institute of Technology in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Joseph Institute of Technology is located in Hungary and was later renamed the Hungarian Royal Joseph Institute of Technology. The institute was an important historical source of the Budapest University of Technology in later generations, and Eubisio was a student majoring in chemistry at the Joseph Institute of Technology.

In fact, as one of the first batch of publicly funded overseas students, Eubisio graduated from Joseph Institute of Technology in 1873. After graduation, due to his excellent grades, he served as a teacher at the school and engaged in related research.

Even in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, he was a top talent, so after returning home, he was arranged by the East African government to serve as the director of the newly established Mbeya Aluminum Materials Research Institute.

In the early days, East Africa was completely blank in this field. It could also be said that it was completely blank. Therefore, with the help of Eubisio, East Africa cooperated with Yubisio’s alma mater, Joseph Institute of Science and Technology, and finally the Aluminum Materials Research Institute in Mbeya City The laboratory was successfully put into operation.

However, it is gratifying that three years after the establishment of the institute, in 1886, it finally broke through the latest electrolytic aluminum technology. Therefore, the results of this project were jointly funded by the Aluminum Materials Research Institute in Mbeya, East Africa, and the Joseph Institute of Technology in Austria-Hungary. Commonly owned.

There is a certain reason for this result. Currently, Hungary itself is one of the important bauxite producing areas in Europe, and the other one is France. During World War II, German aluminum resources were mainly obtained through these two countries.

The aluminum ore resources in East Africa are also widely distributed, including in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Madagascar and other territories.

Of course, the most noteworthy aluminum resource in Africa is Guinea in West Africa. In its previous life, it was one of the largest bauxite producing areas in the world. However, Guinea is too far away from East Africa and is a French colony. It is not easy for East Africa to intervene. It was Portugal, and maybe Ernst had already sent troops. After all, in addition to aluminum ore, Guinea also had the largest iron ore reserves in Africa.

Basic materials science is one of the most important disciplines. Of course, according to future generations, this basic discipline should be established as early as possible.

Because basic materials science is a subject that is not easy to produce results, it may take decades or even generations, high investment, high time-consuming, and slow results. At present, the enterprises in East Africa that can support this kind of investment cycle are basically state-owned enterprises and state-owned enterprises. Financially supported scientific research institutions.

So Eubisio said: "It took us three years to conquer the latest electrolytic aluminum technology, and with the help of the Austro-Hungarian University, your idea of ​​setting up an aluminum smelting plant is technically mature. "At the same time, aluminum alloy materials also have great application scenarios, so the aluminum industry will have a huge market in East Africa and the world in the future, and can definitely become one of the pillar industries in some East African cities."

"Of course, our institute is mainly for research purposes. In fact, the first factory in East Africa that applies this technology is in Bagamoyo City, so you will have to go to Bagamoyo City to inspect the specific situation, especially the equipment. In terms of introduction, only Bagamoyo City has a mature aluminum industry.”

“At the same time, aluminum ore smelting requires a lot of electricity, which is also an important issue you need to solve in advance.”

Of course, Eubisio was not completely unable to help. He said to everyone: "Although our research institute cannot be of great help, some small help can still be done, especially regarding the latest technology of aluminum materials. You can all ask for help." For help we seek, we also need concrete production data and market feedback to formulate research directions.”

(End of this chapter)