The first land for ALCOA's power generating dams in the Great Smoky Mountains was purchased in 1910, 22 years after the Hall Process was developed.

Tennessee Operations smelting plant (South Plant) began operation in 1913.

The rigid packaging plant (North Plant) began operation in 1942.

Tennessee Operations today produces one product - aluminum can sheet (sheet which is formed into beverage cans).

Tennessee Operations comprises 1600 acres...125 of which are under roof.

Every minute, enough aluminum sheet to produce 75,000 cans goes through the plant's Continuous Cold Mill (CCM).

1997 marked the 10-year anniversary of Tennessee Operations' state-of -the-art CCM. The first metal rolled off this mill on June 26, 1987.

At full capacity, Tennessee Operations' smelting plant can produce more than 1.3 million pounds of molten metal each day.

The aluminum rolling process begins with ingots which are cast from this molten metal. These ingots can be up to 30 feet long and weigh 32,000 pounds each.

In the hot rolling process, these huge ingots pass through three rolling mills which transform the 21"-thick ingot into 3,000 foot long, 1/8" thick coils - in about seven minutes!

This 1/8"-thick metal is rolled to its final thickness - a few thousandths of an inch thick - in the cold mill. Metal rolls through the cold mill at about 60 miles per hour.

Can sheet produced at Tennessee Operations is shipped to beverage can makers throughout the world.

Recycling aluminum saves 95 percent of the energy it takes to make new aluminum from raw materials.

Tennessee Operations' Can Reclamation plant remelts enough used beverage cans to produce billions of new cans a year.

Unlike packages made of other materials like plastic or glass, aluminum cans are recycled back into cans. Recycled cans return to store shelves as new cans in as few as 60 days.