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Overture to Aluminum

Accession number: 
1950.0097
Production Years: 
1950 to 1961

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (minutes): 
33
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada: 35mm.
"Industrial documentary about prospecting for bauxite - one of the ingredients used in the manufacture of aluminum. Shots include: men hacking their way through an unidentified jungle; taking small samples and wrapping them in bark; setting fires to clear large tracts of land; using an auger to take larger core samples; and the scientific analysis of the samples."

Bibliography: 

“Overture to Aluminum,” Alcan 16mm Film Catalogue (Montreal: Aluminum Company of Canada, Limited: c.1960), 15.
“Set in British Guiana, where bauxite, the basic ore of aluminum is mined. Social and recreational life in the tropics is shown at Mackenzie, a modern settlement on the banks of the Demerara River, housing employees of the Demerara Bauxite Company. The latter half of the film reveals how new deposits of bauxite are discovered and how it is removed from the jungle and processed prior to ocean shipment to the Aluminum Company of Canada, Ltd., smelters in the Saguenay district of Quebec."