# Magnesium

The lightest structural metal, used in die castings, aluminium alloys and steel desulfurisation, and smelted mostly in China.

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/

Battery & magnet · No. 31

- EU strategic
- EU critical 2023
- US critical 2025
- HHI 4,571 · highly concentrated
 Battery & magnet · Foundation · Matter

When Chinese provinces rationed power in 2021, the world's magnesium supply tightened sharply and prices more than doubled.

Chart: Illustration: Magnesium

##### Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Magnesium is plentiful, about 2.48% of the upper crust. Metal is made from dolomite or magnesite, reduced with ferrosilicon in the coal-burning Pidgeon process that dominates in China.

##### Three things to know

1. Magnesium is about two-thirds the density of aluminium, making it the lightest structural metal.
2. Magnesium alloys are only about 1% of an average car's mass, held back by corrosion and forming problems.
3. The only US primary magnesium smelter, in Utah, stopped in 2022, and its operator went bankrupt in 2025.

##### The journey

1. 1 **Raw material**Dolomite, magnesite, brines or seawater
2. 2 **Calcining**Roasted to magnesia, or brine to chloride
3. 3 **Reduction**Coal-fired Pidgeon process or electrolysis
4. 4 **Ingot**Primary metal, 99.8% magnesium
5. 5 **End uses**Die castings and aluminium alloy additions
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## Other sections

- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/correlation/index.md)
- [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/extraction/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/production/index.md)
- [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/stocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/cycles/index.md)
- [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/trading/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/movement/index.md)
- [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/criticality/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/magnesium/links/index.md)