Abstract
	Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a scientific tool for the systematic evaluation of the environmental impacts of a product or service system through all stages of its life cycle 'from cradle to grave' (mining and extraction of raw materials, fabrication, transportation, use and recycling/disposal). The purpose of life cycle assessment is to define the scope of all environmental impacts associated with the product during its life cycle and to identify and reduce aspects with the most significant environmental impacts. Life Cycle Assessment is intended for broad use throughout the industry with a view to assess and stimulate environmental improvement in production processes and product development. This is useful because it provides an objective and detailed reference in respect of environmental aspects. Past experiences have shown that the review of life cycle assessment environmental aspects in production processes can lead to improvements in the production processes themselves. 
	Today, life cycle assessment is increasingly developed in metallurgy. It is related to new recycling technology, metal extraction from secondary materials and to fact, that metal production belongs mostly to large environmental pollution sources. Primary aluminium production is energy intensive. On the other hand, aluminium has a potential to meet the criteria for sustainable development. 
	The contribution deals with aluminium production in respect with sustainable development as well as the life cycle assessment of primary aluminium production. In conclusion, the results of environmental impact assessment of primary aluminium production in Slovalco, a.s. Ziar nad Hronom are compared with International Aluminium Institute worldwide data.