Almost all the mass of the can that holds the coke is aluminum.
There are small - but necessary -amounts of lacquer on both the
inside and outside.
Aluminum is derived from an ore called bauxite. U.S. aluminum
producers import bauxite, primarily from Jamaica and Guinea. The
bauxite is refined and then smelted, and the resulting molten
aluminum is cast into ingots The aluminum base, for beverage cans
consists mostly of aluminum, but it contains small amounts of other
metals as well. These are typically 1% magnesium, 1% manganese,
0.4% iron, 0.2% silicon, and 0.15% copper. A large portion of the
aluminum used in the beverage can industry is derived from recycled
material. Twenty-five percent of the total American aluminum supply
comes from recycled scrap, and the beverage can industry is the
primary user of recycled material.
