Eli5 why is aluminium not used as a material until relatively recently whilst others metals like gold, iron, bronze, tin are found throughout human history?

Question

Eli5 why is aluminium not used as a material until relatively recently whilst others metals like gold, iron, bronze, tin are found throughout human history?

In: 7474

Answer 1

Before the [Hall-Heroult process](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall%E2%80%93H%C3%A9roult_process) came about, there was no cheap, easy way to take aluminum out of ore (where it’s all found) and turn it into mostly pure metal.