It has been noted that during the manufacture of parts by means of mechanical engineering, a large volume of metal ends up in chips to be disposed, for which special methods are being developed around the world. The purpose of the work is to determine energy costs when using two options for processing chips from aluminum and its alloys. The first option is associated with the use of traditional remelting technology. It means energy costs, i.e. costs of heating the metal in the solid phase, the costs of phase transformation and the costs of overheating for foundry operations. The second option is based on the compacting chips in solid-phase and the subsequent pressure treatment of the briquette. The specific energy for heating the metal to the melting temperature, the specific energy for the implementation of the «solid state - liquid state» phase transformation and the specific energy required to overheat the melt to the metal casting temperature have been calculated and compared with values known from the practice. Reference data is provided allowing one to correct the calculations as applied to 1XXX-7XXX aluminum alloys. Using transformations of relationships known from physics, the authors derived a formula for estimating the energy required for chip compaction. This process allows the metal to be given a shape suitable for the subsequent forming. Calculations showed that this energy costs could account for only 2-4 % of the costs of the conventional process. It is concluded that just the second option is highly effective. It was noted that because of the penetration of aluminum oxides into the workpieces, the final properties of the metal could change. Essentially, this material is a composite reinforced with solid particles, which improves the strength properties of the product.