Metal rich primers comprising of zinc (Zn) or magnesium (Mg) particles are applied onto certain aluminium (Al) alloys to sacrificially protect the alloys. An alternative method to sacrificially protect Al alloys is to induce the formation of a homogeneous distribution of anodic surface precipitates upon them. In this contribution, surface precipitation is exploited to impart sacrificial corrosion protection to Al alloys. Metallurgical thermal treatments were performed to form anodic surface precipitates (MgZn2, Al2MgCu and Mg2Si) on two commercial Al alloys: AA7050 and AA6061. Corrosion tests demonstrate that these miniature surface precipitates formed upon Al alloys can impart sacrificial cathodic protection.