Rio Tinto Straumsvik Aluminum Smelter

Walked away from this place a new man. My skin has never felt this good. I'm literally glowing. Oh, wow! I'm a new creation. Thank you, Rio Tinto Straumsvik Aluminum Smelter. Thank you. I'll write, I promise. Often.

I sat in the passenger seat as we drove towards the airport, emotionally vulnerable. The trip was over, I had to say goodbye to the quiet icelandic landscape because I had to go back with my big city wife to our hectic big city life and careers. And then I saw it as the car went past Hafnarfjörður, the Rio Tinto Straumsvik Aluminium Smelter. Its pipes and shade of green were hypnotizing. I stared at it as the car drove along its impressive length of 900 meters (2952.720 feet) and I dreamed of a simple life. I could be a stay at home husband and bake cookies, then welcome the Rio Tinto Straumsvik Aluminium Smelter home at the end of a hard day's work. It wouldn't be a fancy life like in the big city, but with the Rio Tinto Straumsvik Aluminium Smelter's yearly output of 202,000 tonnes of some of the highest quality aluminium billets, we would manage. Just a silly dream, nothing more. I put those fantasies out of my mind. We arrived at the airport, returned the rental car and went through security. Every step caused a twinge of sadness in me. As I was walking up the stairs to the boarding area I heard a loud crash and horrified screams. I turned back to see and there it was, the Rio Tinto Straumsvik Aluminium Smelter. "Wait! Don't go, we can be happy together!" "But Rio Tinto Straumsvik Aluminium Smelter, I have a big city wife and we must go back to our big city careers and lifestyle! I could never leave it all behind!" "You know that life doesn't bring you true happiness. Stay with me!" "How could I? The aluminium smelting process produces a quantity of fluoride waste: perfluorocarbons and hydrogen fluoride as gases, and sodium and aluminium fluorides and unused cryolite as particulates. This can be as small as 0.5 kg per tonne of aluminium in the best plants in 2007, up to 4 kg per tonne of aluminium in older designs. Unless carefully controlled, hydrogen fluorides tend to be very toxic to vegetation around the plants. The perfluorocarbons gases are strong greenhouse gases with a long lifetime. The Soderberg process which bakes the Anthracite/pitch mix as the anode is consumed, produces significant emissions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as the pitch is consumed in the smelter!" "Maybe, but 100% of my electricity is generated from clean, renewable energy, supplied by the National power company Landsvirkjun. I started producing aluminium in 1969, marking the beginning of the industrialisation of the Icelandic economy. Since then, my operations have continued to strengthen my purpose to continuously find better ways to produce high-quality aluminium while being sensitive to environmental and societal needs. My aluminium production is mainly centred around value added aluminium billets. These are produced in various alloys, sizes, and diameters, according to the specific needs of my customers. Since 2021, I have partnered with Carbfix on a project to implement technology for capturing carbon and permanently storing it underground. The objective is for the site to become the first smelter in the aluminium industry to successfully capture and store carbon. Through ongoing efforts, education, improved maintenance and use of technology, since 1990 I have reduced such emissions by around 75% per ton of aluminium produced. " My resolve started to crack, I once again started to dream that tempting dream of a simple life. "I... I couldn't..." "My operation is compliant with ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001. And I'm ASI certified." I couldn't resist. I dropped my bags and skipped daintily down the steps. I could barely hear my big city wife's protests above the people in the airport screaming about the partial collapse of the building and the casualties, it was as if I was floating on a cloud. The Rio Tinto Straumsvik Aluminium Smelter swept me off my feet, and for the first time I felt truly happy. I am home.

The bouncy castle was a hit with my kids, but the souvenir store isn't that great, they only got bits of leftover aluminum made into fridge magnets, it's pointy and a health hazard at best. 4 stars for being one of the best spots to see Northern lights, it's open all night and they sell hot chocolate on cold winter nights.

I don't get the hype. If you want to see world-class smelting, check out the Alcoa plant in Reyðarfjörður. The facilities are clean and modern, and it provides a stunning backdrop for any gathering or intimate event. This is where I proposed, and we might even have the wedding there. They said it wouldn't be the first! I highly doubt anyone would propose at Rio Tinto...

Just look at those lines. Just. Look. And bask in their symmetry. Wonder in their straightness, so unlike Icelandic politics. And the color! The same shade of green that tourists turn when they get their first whiff of hákarl. What's not to love? Came here on a business trip, but stayed back to learn to be a smelter. My wife and son miss me back home, but I console myself by remembering that my memory lives bright in every "psshhhtt!" they hear when anyone opens an aluminium can.