Satisfactory Aluminium Production Guide
Build a stable Satisfactory 1.2 aluminium factory with Bauxite, Alumina Solution, Aluminum Scrap, water recycling, ingots and casings.
Overview
Aluminium begins in Tier 7 Bauxite Refinement and introduces one of Satisfactory's first production chains where recycling a fluid byproduct becomes central to keeping the factory stable. The standard route is Bauxite → Alumina Solution → Aluminum Scrap → Aluminum Ingots → Aluminum Casings and other products.
Unlock Bauxite Refinement
Tier 7 becomes available after completing Project Assembly Phase 3. The Bauxite Refinement milestone unlocks the core aluminium processing chain.
Step 1: Alumina Solution
One Refinery using the standard Alumina Solution recipe consumes 120 Bauxite/min and 180 m³ Water/min. It produces 120 m³ Alumina Solution/min plus 50 Silica/min.
Step 2: Aluminum Scrap
The standard Aluminum Scrap recipe consumes 240 m³ Alumina Solution/min and 120 Coal/min, producing 360 Aluminum Scrap/min and returning 120 m³ Water/min as a byproduct.
The water byproduct is part of the design
If the Scrap Refinery cannot dispose of its Water output, it eventually stops, which then backs up the entire aluminium chain. Recycle the water carefully into Alumina Solution production, dedicate some machines to recycled water, or send it to another valid consumer. Do not simply merge unlimited fresh and recycled water and hope fluid priority sorts itself out.
Step 3: Aluminum Ingots
The standard Foundry recipe consumes 90 Aluminum Scrap/min and 75 Silica/min to produce 60 Aluminum Ingots/min. The Silica created by the standard Alumina Solution recipe is not enough by itself to support all standard Aluminum Ingot production, so additional Silica is required unless you use an alternate recipe strategy.
Aluminum Casings
A Constructor consumes 90 Aluminum Ingots/min and produces 60 Aluminum Casings/min. Casings feed several later-game production chains, making a dependable aluminium plant more valuable than a short burst of manually balanced output.
Useful alternate recipes
Sloppy Alumina removes the Silica byproduct from Alumina Solution production, while Pure Aluminum Ingot removes Silica from the ingot stage. Alternate recipes change the best ratios substantially, so this guide uses the standard recipes as the baseline and treats alternates as optimisation choices.
Build aluminium as a system
Plan the Bauxite input, water loop, coal supply, Silica supply and Scrap/ingot outputs together. Add buffers where they help diagnose flow, but do not rely on storage to permanently hide an imbalanced byproduct loop. Storage eventually fills. Physics remains annoyingly committed to the bit.
Worked aluminium example: balance the scrap-water loop
These figures describe standard recipes with all machines running at 100% clock speed. To produce enough Alumina Solution for one full-speed Aluminum Scrap Refinery, build two Alumina Solution Refineries. Together they consume 240 Bauxite/min and 360 m³ Water/min, producing 240 m³ Alumina Solution/min and 100 Silica/min.
One Aluminum Scrap Refinery consumes that entire 240 m³ Alumina Solution/min plus 120 Coal/min, producing 360 Aluminum Scrap/min and returning 120 m³ Water/min as a byproduct. The Alumina Refineries still need 360 m³ Water/min total, so the steady-state fresh-water demand is 240 m³/min if all 120 m³/min of recycled Water is reliably returned and used. At normal clock speed, two Water Extractors can supply the 240 m³/min makeup.
Production figures at a glance
- 2 Alumina Solution Refineries: 240 Bauxite/min + 360 m³ Water/min → 240 m³ Alumina Solution/min + 100 Silica/min.
- 1 Aluminum Scrap Refinery: 240 m³ Alumina Solution/min + 120 Coal/min → 360 Aluminum Scrap/min + 120 m³ recycled Water/min.
- 2 Water Extractors: 240 m³ fresh Water/min, used alongside the 120 m³/min recovered byproduct.
- 4 Aluminum Ingot Foundries: consume 360 Aluminum Scrap/min and 300 Silica/min to produce 240 Aluminum Ingots/min. The Alumina Solution stage provides only 100 Silica/min, so another 200 Silica/min must be supplied using the standard recipes.
- 2 Aluminum Casing Constructors: use 180 of those Ingots/min to produce 120 Aluminum Casings/min, leaving 60 Ingots/min for other products.
Prevent water-loop stalls
- Build and power both Alumina Solution Refineries and the Scrap Refinery, with easily accessible fluid junctions.
- Prime the water inputs with enough fresh Water to start Alumina Solution production, then establish the Scrap Refinery's 120 m³/min Water return.
- Introduce fresh Water only at the remaining required rate. Configure the pipe layout so recycled byproduct Water has a reliable consumption path and is not constantly blocked by full fresh-water inputs.
- Use suitable separate feeds, junction elevation priorities or a proven fluid-priority layout if mixing causes stalls. Confirm actual pipeline behaviour in game before calling any pipe arrangement a tested blueprint.
- Verify the Silica and Scrap belts. A combined 360 Aluminum Scrap/min line is too much for Mk.3's 270 items/min capacity; use Mk.4 or divide the output over multiple belts.
Important: these are complete production-rate calculations, but the optimal water-junction arrangement depends on the physical layout and should be tested in game. A single shared Mk.1 Water pipe cannot transport the full 360 m³/min demanded by both Alumina Refineries, so divide feeds appropriately or use a higher-capacity pipe.
Sources: Alumina Solution, Aluminum Scrap, Aluminum Ingot and Water Extractor on the official Satisfactory Wiki.