ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES FOR THE MAGNESIUM INDUSTRY

The subject of environmental concerns with magnesium production and magnesium processing first started showing up in technical analysis of problems about the time of Life Cycle Analysis articles. Magnesium is produced and processed in relatively small quantities throughout the world. Annual magnesium production has been around 500-700,000 metric tons per year. This compares to aluminum which is produced in annual amounts up to 35 million metric tons. There have been some excellent review papers done, but a great amount of the work related to electrolytic magnesium production which was the predominant method of production. That situation has changed totally in the past 10 years and now 85% of the world's magnesium is produced by thermal processes and most of that is in China. Comparison papers have been written on the environmental impacts of the two main magnesium production processes. As the measurement technology improves and as the total information references are better understood the environmental challenges can be more clearly identified. This paper reviews the situation and suggests some forward looking steps that might need to be taken.