Up until electricity abundance, aluminium was almost unknown to most as refining it requires lots of electricity. Aluminium ore is very abundant too but we didn't know what to do with it.

Prior to this process, aluminum basically didn’t exist naturally and was incredibly hard to refine from bauxite.

It’s wild how not long ago aluminum was an unbelievably rare, valuable metal, and now it’s ubiquitous and cheap.

The intense electricity requirement is also why recycling aluminum is not just an environmental activity: it’s a profitable one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall%E2%80%93H%C3%A9roult_proc...