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53-725: The KAP produces its own alumina , extracting it via the Bayer process out of the bauxite shipped from the Nikšić bauxite mine. The factory also has its own production of pre-baked anodes . The smelter has an installed capacity of 120,000 tons of liquid aluminum per year. KAP is connected by railway with bauxite mines near Nikšić and the Port of Bar , and the Podgorica Airport is only a few kilometers away. Construction of an aluminium smelter in Montenegro

106-456: A coating on aluminium by anodizing or by plasma electrolytic oxidation (see the "Properties" above). Both the hardness and abrasion-resistant characteristics of the coating originate from the high strength of aluminium oxide, yet the porous coating layer produced with conventional direct current anodizing procedures is within a 60–70 Rockwell hardness C range which is comparable only to hardened carbon steel alloys, but considerably inferior to

159-447: A company based in Cyprus , for €48.5 million and obligations to invest over €50 million in its modernization and environmental upgrade. CEAC is fully owned by En+ Group . The negotiations on the sale were conducted directly between Oleg Deripaska and the then Prime Minister of Montenegro , Milo Đukanović . In May 2006 CEAC said that "various breaches of representations and warranties" of

212-569: A debt of 383 million euros, while the company itself is worth 180 million euros. In July 2014, KAP was sold for 28 million euros to the Montenegrin company Uniprom that is 100% owned by Veselin Pejović . The Podgorica Aluminium Plant (KAP) has been a focal point of controversy and criticism, despite its status as the largest individual contributor to Montenegro's GDP and exports. The primary source of discontent revolves around environmental concerns, as

265-457: A manual dermal abrasive used according to manufacturer directions. Aluminium oxide flakes are used in paint for reflective decorative effects, such as in the automotive or cosmetic industries. Aluminium oxide is a representative of bioinert ceramics. Due to its excellent biocompatibility, high strength, and wear resistance, alumina ceramics are used in medical applications to manufacture artificial bones and joints. In this case, aluminium oxide

318-405: A material in hip replacements and birth control pills . It is used as a scintillator and dosimeter for radiation protection and therapy applications for its optically stimulated luminescence properties. Insulation for high-temperature furnaces is often manufactured from aluminium oxide. Sometimes the insulation has varying percentages of silica depending on the temperature rating of

371-642: A political party. In the 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum , PzP remained neutral and did not campaign for either option, their choice being an outcome without the Movement's involvement. Although prominent members of the party supported an independent Montenegrin state, they refused to join the Bloc for an Independent Montenegro, led by the DPS. After the referendum, they stated that they did so out of opposition to Đukanović's rule, which they see as corrupt and undemocratic. In

424-545: A proportion of aluminium in the alloy to enhance corrosion resistance. The aluminium oxide generated by anodising is typically amorphous , but discharge-assisted oxidation processes such as plasma electrolytic oxidation result in a significant proportion of crystalline aluminium oxide in the coating, enhancing its hardness . Aluminium oxide was taken off the United States Environmental Protection Agency 's chemicals lists in 1988. Aluminium oxide

477-412: A relatively high thermal conductivity ( 30 Wm K ) for a ceramic material. Aluminium oxide is insoluble in water. In its most commonly occurring crystalline form, called corundum or α-aluminium oxide, its hardness makes it suitable for use as an abrasive and as a component in cutting tools . Aluminium oxide is responsible for the resistance of metallic aluminium to weathering . Metallic aluminium

530-467: A research field of interest. Some body armors utilize alumina ceramic plates, usually in combination with aramid or UHMWPE backing to achieve effectiveness against most rifle threats. Alumina ceramic armor is readily available to most civilians in jurisdictions where it is legal, but is not considered military grade. It is also used to produce bullet-proof alumina glass capable to withstand impact of .50 BMG calibre rounds. Aluminium oxide can be grown as

583-472: A tailored product. The type of phases present affects, for example, the solubility and pore structure of the aluminium oxide product which, in turn, affects the cost of aluminium production and pollution control. The Sintering Process is a high-temperature method primarily used when the Bayer Process is not suitable, especially for ores with high silica content or when a more controlled product morphology

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636-603: A vocal advocate for Montenegro's NATO membership. Recently it takes a cautiously supportive attitude towards the country's EU integrations, opposing the European Union's further federalisation and frequently criticising the Brussels bureaucracy. The party, like its NGO predecessor, advocates as part a reform agenda change in the "undemocratic regime of the Democratic Party of Socialists " the party that has ruled Montenegro as

689-418: Is a chemical compound of aluminium and oxygen with the chemical formula Al 2 O 3 . It is the most commonly occurring of several aluminium oxides , and specifically identified as aluminium oxide . It is commonly called alumina and may also be called aloxide , aloxite , or alundum in various forms and applications. It occurs naturally in its crystalline polymorphic phase α-Al 2 O 3 as

742-681: Is a right-wing populist and far-right political party in Montenegro . Its current leader is Nebojša Medojević , the party's founder. The party was founded by a group of economists and academics in September 2002 and was modeled after the Group 17 Plus in Serbia. It is led by Nebojša Medojević It operated as a non-governmental organization under the name Group for Changes ( Montenegrin : Група за промјене , romanized :  Grupa za promjene , GZP ) until July 17, 2006, when it reconstituted itself as

795-466: Is a favored filler for plastics. Aluminium oxide is a common ingredient in sunscreen and is often also present in cosmetics such as blush, lipstick, and nail polish. Many formulations of glass have aluminium oxide as an ingredient. Aluminosilicate glass is a commonly used type of glass that often contains 5% to 10% alumina. Aluminium oxide catalyses a variety of reactions that are useful industrially. In its largest scale application, aluminium oxide

848-566: Is derived, are used in the manufacture of zeolites , coating titania pigments, and as a fire retardant/smoke suppressant. Over 90% of aluminium oxide, termed smelter grade alumina (SGA), is consumed for the production of aluminium, usually by the Hall–Héroult process . The remainder, termed specialty alumina , is used in a wide variety of applications which take advantage of its inertness, temperature resistance and electrical resistance. Being fairly chemically inert and white, aluminium oxide

901-455: Is on the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory list if it is a fibrous form. Aluminium oxide is an amphoteric substance, meaning it can react with both acids and bases , such as hydrofluoric acid and sodium hydroxide , acting as an acid with a base and a base with an acid, neutralising the other and producing a salt. The most common form of crystalline aluminium oxide is known as corundum , which

954-456: Is required. Firstly, Bauxite is mixed with additives like limestone and soda ash, then heating the mixture at high temperatures (1200 °C to 1500 °C) to form sodium aluminate and calcium silicate . After sintering, the material is leached with water to dissolve the sodium aluminate , leaving behind impurities. Sodium aluminate is then precipitated from the solution and calcined at around 1000 °C to produce alumina. This method

1007-483: Is the catalyst in the Claus process for converting hydrogen sulfide waste gases into elemental sulfur in refineries. It is also useful for dehydration of alcohols to alkenes . Aluminium oxide serves as a catalyst support for many industrial catalysts, such as those used in hydrodesulfurization and some Ziegler–Natta polymerizations. Aluminium oxide is widely used to remove water from gas streams. Aluminium oxide

1060-565: Is the thermodynamically stable form. The oxygen ions form a nearly hexagonal close-packed structure with the aluminium ions filling two-thirds of the octahedral interstices. Each Al center is octahedral . In terms of its crystallography , corundum adopts a trigonal Bravais lattice with a space group of R 3 c (number 167 in the International Tables). The primitive cell contains two formula units of aluminium oxide. Aluminium oxide also exists in other metastable phases, including

1113-433: Is used as a superior polishing abrasive in watchmaking and clockmaking. Aluminium oxide is also used in the coating of stanchions in the motocross and mountain bike industries. This coating is combined with molybdenumdisulfate to provide long term lubrication of the surface. Movement for Changes Movement for Changes ( Montenegrin : Покрет за промјене , romanized :  Pokret za promjene , PZP )

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1166-538: Is used as an insulating barrier in capacitors . In lighting, translucent aluminium oxide is used in some sodium vapor lamps . Aluminium oxide is also used in preparation of coating suspensions in compact fluorescent lamps . In chemistry laboratories, aluminium oxide is a medium for chromatography , available in basic (pH 9.5), acidic (pH 4.5 when in water) and neutral formulations. Additionally, small pieces of aluminium oxide are often used as boiling chips . Health and medical applications include it as

1219-495: Is used for its hardness and strength. Its naturally occurring form, corundum , is a 9 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness (just below diamond). It is widely used as an abrasive , including as a much less expensive substitute for industrial diamond . Many types of sandpaper use aluminium oxide crystals. In addition, its low heat retention and low specific heat make it widely used in grinding operations, particularly cutoff tools. As

1272-409: Is used to coat the surfaces of medical implants to give biocompatibility and corrosion resistance. It is also used for manufacturing dental implants, joint replacements, and other medical devices. Aluminium oxide has been used in a few experimental and commercial fiber materials for high-performance applications (e.g., Fiber FP, Nextel 610, Nextel 720). Alumina nanofibers in particular have become

1325-420: Is used to manufacture tiles which are attached inside pulverized fuel lines and flue gas ducting on coal fired power stations to protect high wear areas. They are not suitable for areas with high impact forces as these tiles are brittle and susceptible to breakage. Aluminium oxide is an electrical insulator used as a substrate ( silicon on sapphire ) for integrated circuits , but also as a tunnel barrier for

1378-600: Is useful for the production of complex shapes and can be used to create porous or dense materials. Known as alpha alumina in materials science , and as alundum (in fused form) or aloxite in mining and ceramic communities, aluminium oxide finds wide use. Annual global production of aluminium oxide in 2015 was approximately 115 million tonnes , over 90% of which was used in the manufacture of aluminium metal. The major uses of speciality aluminium oxides are in refractories, ceramics, polishing and abrasive applications. Large tonnages of aluminium hydroxide, from which alumina

1431-436: Is very reactive with atmospheric oxygen, and a thin passivation layer of aluminium oxide (4 nm thickness) forms on any exposed aluminium surface in a matter of hundreds of picoseconds. This layer protects the metal from further oxidation. The thickness and properties of this oxide layer can be enhanced using a process called anodising . A number of alloys , such as aluminium bronzes , exploit this property by including

1484-513: The 2006 parliamentary election , the party ran for the first time, winning 11 of 81 seats. It became a vocal opposition party and forged links with the Serb People's Party and the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro in an attempt to unify the country's political opposition. The party put forward amendments as part of the drafting process for the new Constitution of Montenegro , including

1537-512: The Movement for Changes , argue that the sale of KAP was disadvantageous for Montenegro. They contend that the plant was undervalued and raise concerns about the business practices of CEAC owners, alleging consistent annual losses to avoid dividends payments to minority shareholders . KAP's trade union has launched strikes frequently since privatization, demanding increases in wages. Alumina Aluminium oxide (or aluminium(III) oxide )

1590-707: The mineral corundum , varieties of which form the precious gemstones ruby and sapphire . Al 2 O 3 is used to produce aluminium metal, as an abrasive owing to its hardness , and as a refractory material owing to its high melting point. Corundum is the most common naturally occurring crystalline form of aluminium oxide. Rubies and sapphires are gem-quality forms of corundum, which owe their characteristic colours to trace impurities. Rubies are given their characteristic deep red colour and their laser qualities by traces of chromium . Sapphires come in different colours given by various other impurities, such as iron and titanium. An extremely rare δ form occurs as

1643-462: The Al are surrounded by 4 oxygen neighbors), and 1/3 5-coordinated, with very little (<5%) octahedral Al-O present. Around 80% of the oxygen atoms are shared among three or more Al-O polyhedra, and the majority of inter-polyhedral connections are corner-sharing, with the remaining 10–20% being edge-sharing. The breakdown of octahedra upon melting is accompanied by a relatively large volume increase (~33%),

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1696-602: The DF parliamentary group. Initially, the ideological profile of the Movement for Changes was a mix of fiscal conservatism , economic liberalism and anti-corruption in economic policy, atlanticism and pro-Europeanism in foreign policy, and moderate conservatism on social issues. Since founding, party has as a proclaimed goal the integration of their country into the European Union and political and economic reforms to bring it into line with European norms, PzP has also been

1749-464: The KAP has struggled to survive the impact of ongoing economic crisis . The low trading price of aluminium, and expensive production inputs, primarily the electricity and alumina production, have resulted in KAP generating daily losses of up to €200,000. The company has been unable to survive ever since without the constant Government subsidies, primarily in writing off the debt for electricity. In June 2009,

1802-469: The PzP at protests against Montenegrin recognition of Kosovo , in turn, alienated some Albanian supporters of the Movement. The party saw a fall in support at the 2009 parliamentary election , falling from 11 seats to 5. The Movement for Changes leader, Nebojša Medojević, was a candidate in the 2008 presidential election . He came in third, gathering nearly 17% of the vote. Since the 2012 parliamentary election ,

1855-499: The basic mixture, Fe 2 O 3 is removed. When the Bayer liquor is cooled, Al(OH) 3 precipitates, leaving the silicates in solution. The solid Al(OH) 3 Gibbsite is then calcined (heated to over 1100 °C) to give aluminium oxide: The product aluminium oxide tends to be multi-phase, i.e., consisting of several phases of aluminium oxide rather than solely corundum . The production process can therefore be optimized to produce

1908-429: The chemical exchange between trimethylaluminium (Al(CH 3 ) 3 ) and H 2 O: H 2 O in the above reaction can be replaced by ozone (O 3 ) as the active oxidant and the following reaction then takes place: The Al 2 O 3 films prepared using O 3 show 10–100 times lower leakage current density compared with those prepared by H 2 O. Aluminium oxide, being a dielectric with relatively large band gap ,

1961-427: The cubic γ and η phases, the monoclinic θ phase, the hexagonal χ phase, the orthorhombic κ phase and the δ phase that can be tetragonal or orthorhombic. Each has a unique crystal structure and properties. Cubic γ-Al 2 O 3 has important technical applications. The so-called β-Al 2 O 3 proved to be NaAl 11 O 17 . Molten aluminium oxide near the melting temperature is roughly 2/3 tetrahedral (i.e. 2/3 of

2014-408: The deal were discovered by accountants Deloitte, including KAP having "hidden" debts and obligations towards the state totalling tens of millions of euros. In addition, the government-certified 2004 accounts were deemed inaccurate when it came to working capital and other assets. "It became evident to CEAC that KAP's initial financial situation had been misrepresented," the company claimed. As of 2008,

2067-405: The density of the liquid close to its melting point is 2.93 g/cm . The structure of molten alumina is temperature dependent and the fraction of 5- and 6-fold aluminium increases during cooling (and supercooling), at the expense of tetrahedral AlO 4 units, approaching the local structural arrangements found in amorphous alumina. Aluminium hydroxide minerals are the main component of bauxite ,

2120-458: The dominant partner in every coalition government since the end of communism, and the "dethroning" of multiple-term Prime-Minister and President Milo Đukanović . PzP also often referred to the Đukanovic regime as example of the Mafia state . In recent years, the Movement for Changes has increasingly employed a more antiglobalist , right-wing populist and anti-immigrant discourse, frequently depicting

2173-403: The fabrication of superconducting devices such as single-electron transistors , superconducting quantum interference devices ( SQUIDs ) and superconducting qubits . For its application as an electrical insulator in integrated circuits, where the conformal growth of a thin film is a prerequisite and the preferred growth mode is atomic layer deposition , Al 2 O 3 films can be prepared by

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2226-498: The financial situation at the company had not improved, leaving KAP in danger of being closed by CEAC. The government, not wanting to see its largest company being shut down, agreed to guarantee a €45 million loan. In exchange, the government would receive half of the stakes owned by CEAC, leaving CEAC with a stake of 29.3%. As relationship between the owners and management and the Government of Montenegro became increasingly sour, there

2279-438: The hardness of natural and synthetic corundum. Instead, with plasma electrolytic oxidation , the coating is porous only on the surface oxide layer while the lower oxide layers are much more compact than with standard DC anodizing procedures and present a higher crystallinity due to the oxide layers being remelted and densified to obtain α-Al2O3 clusters with much higher coating hardness values circa 2000 Vickers hardness. Alumina

2332-499: The material. The insulation can be made in blanket, board, brick and loose fiber forms for various application requirements. It is also used to make spark plug insulators . Using a plasma spray process and mixed with titania , it is coated onto the braking surface of some bicycle rims to provide abrasion and wear resistance. Most ceramic eyes on fishing rods are circular rings made from aluminium oxide. In its finest powdered (white) form, called Diamantine, aluminium oxide

2385-400: The mineral deltalumite. The field of aluminium oxide ceramics has a long history. Aluminium salts were widely used in ancient and medieval alchemy . Several older textbooks cover the history of the field. A 2019 textbook by Andrew Ruys contains a detailed timeline on the history of aluminium oxide from ancient times to the 21st century. Al 2 O 3 is an electrical insulator but has

2438-555: The party operates within the populist Democratic Front (DF) alliance. PzP joined the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists in May 2015. In 2019, following Nebojsa Medojevic's meeting with Mischaël Modrikamen PzP announced its membership in The Movement , a coalition of populist parties chaired by former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon . In September 2020, the PzP left

2491-580: The period 1997–1999 KAP participated with 8.2–6.7% in GDP of Montenegro, and 65–67% in export for the same period. Most of the time, the KAP acquired necessary raw materials and spare parts from Glencore . The entire export was also conducted by Glencore. The company was one of the few Montenegrin companies to recover quickly after the breakup of Yugoslavia . On 1 December 2005, KAP was privatized, with 65.4394% of shares being sold to Salomon Enterprises Limited (later renamed CEAC – Central European Aluminum Company),

2544-500: The plant is heavily criticized for polluting the fertile Zeta Plain . KAP's red mud pond is notorious for emitting dry red dust that disperses through the villages in Zeta due to wind patterns. KAP also faces scrutiny for consuming a significant portion of Montenegro's electrical power at reduced rates, while Montenegrin citizens experiencie frequent electricity shortages and pay substantially higher prices for it. Political entities such as

2597-408: The powdery abrasive mineral aloxite , it is a major component, along with silica , of the cue tip "chalk" used in billiards . Aluminium oxide powder is used in some CD / DVD polishing and scratch-repair kits. Its polishing qualities are also behind its use in toothpaste. It is also used in microdermabrasion , both in the machine process available through dermatologists and estheticians, and as

2650-442: The principal ore of aluminium . A mixture of the minerals comprise bauxite ore, including gibbsite (Al(OH) 3 ), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)), and diaspore (α-AlO(OH)), along with impurities of iron oxides and hydroxides, quartz and clay minerals . Bauxites are found in laterites . Bauxite is typically purified using the Bayer process : Except for SiO 2 , the other components of bauxite do not dissolve in base. Upon filtering

2703-507: The suggestion of official language status for the Serbian language alongside the existing proposal to declare Montenegrin the state language. The proposal was adopted by the ruling coalition, and PzP gave its support for the required two-thirds super-majority to adopt the Constitution. This support damaged its ties with other opposition parties to some extent. The presence of senior officials of

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2756-510: Was an ongoing debate within the country about the fate of the company. The size of the company, number of employees, and its impact on the Montenegrin trade balance imply that efforts will be made by the Government to keep the company alive, although sustainable ownership and management arrangements are yet to be made given the current dissatisfaction with Russian owners. On 8 July 2013, KAP officially went bankrupt, having up to that point accumulated

2809-402: Was first proposed in the 1960s, when significant quantities of high quality bauxite ore were discovered near Nikšić . With support from Pechiney construction of KAP began in 1969, while production of aluminium began in 1971. The plant had its most difficult times during UN -imposed economic sanctions on FR Yugoslavia . During the sanctions, the production was reduced to 13% of capacity. In

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