Magnesium Refining

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Tindell9

New member
Joined
Aug 19, 2019
Messages
3
Hello,

I was researching refining techniques for magnesium from dolomite ore, and it seems like the pidgeon process and electrolytic methods are about the only two ways to refine metal magnesium. I was just looking to see if anyone has ever tried refining magnesium from dolomite ore at home?

I saw an article about a modified pidgeon process that uses microwave energy on ferrosilicon and calcined dolomite briquettes. Any advice on magnesium refining would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,
Tyler
 
After doing an HCl leach of basalt, I've successfully recovered magnesium hydroxide by adjusting the pH strongly alkaline with NaOH. The magnesium hydroxide precipitates as a compact white mud at around pH 10.

It's straightforward to roast this to magnesium oxide, but I don't know of an easy route from there to magnesium metal, the stuff is just too reactive to use an air or aqueous process.

(...and I just noticed the original post is from 2020!)
 
Well, I don't know but Nitrogen as an inert gas would react with the carbon and MgO. I think you would need Carbon and MgO (magnesium Oxide) pure plus a noble gas like Neon, or Argon. That would be very hard. You are better off buying Magnesium form eBay if it is very pure. eBay you can get Magnesium, Sodium metal, and other metals like Potassium relatively cheaply.
 
Years ago on my belt sander with a dust collector was grinding some magnesium into a powder.

I had overlooked a small metal screw, the whole shop lite up like a large flash bulb had gone off. When the smoke cleared, I then noticed all of the plastic pipe leading to the dust collector was missing.

Fortunately I was wearing a full face respirator.
 
stoneware said:
Years ago on my belt sander with a dust collector was grinding some magnesium into a powder.

I had overlooked a small metal screw, the whole shop lite up like a large flash bulb had gone off. When the smoke cleared, I then noticed all of the plastic pipe leading to the dust collector was missing.

Fortunately I was wearing a full face respirator.
Click to expand...

Every once in awhile you hear of a magnesium wheel on an aircraft catch fire after the brake stack over heated. Once it starts you can't put it out with a normal fire extinguisher. If I remember right it is a "Class D" fire and requires a special retardant.... lack of that retardant all you can do is protect the surroundings from the radiant heat.

Same thing if an aircraft accidently pops off a flare while on the ground... you wouldn't believe how bright those things are. I'm not sure if they are magnesium, but they are some kind of metal.
 
Magnesium fires are pretty crazy. I’ve burned it just out of curiosity. Pour water on it and it only burns brighter.

Please find a way and share just to prove Ultrax wrong. Something about short confidently pessimistic responses make me want to find anyway possible to make it happen.
 
Ohiogoldfever said:
Magnesium fires are pretty crazy. I’ve burned it just out of curiosity. Pour water on it and it only burns brighter.

Please find a way and share just to prove Ultrax wrong. Something about short confidently pessimistic responses make me want to find anyway possible to make it happen.
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I tend to agree, but somehow I suspect he is right. At least if we drag economy into the equation😏
If we drop economic deliberations one can probably find a way through Sodium or other Alkali metals.
Edit to add:
Practical no, but maybe technically possible.
 
Ohiogoldfever said:
Please find a way and share just to prove Ultrax wrong. Something about short confidently pessimistic responses make me want to find anyway possible to make it happen.
Click to expand...
Is there a professional forum here or a kindergarten? It's a child's attitude to stomp your feet wishing the sun would rise in the west and freak out if it doesn't, and refuse to accept the reality. Striving to achieve results is great, but it must be accompanied by the appropriate education, otherwise, every generation of people will reinvent the wheel. Modern people generally do not want to read and study diligently, they have become too concentrated on the "value" of their infantile impulses and emotional desires, ignoring the world around them. This path will bring us back to the level of the Neanderthals.
 
Ultrax, there is no need to insult the forum or our members with references to kindergarten, child's attitude, infantile impulses, etc. We appreciate you sharing your knowledge, but please keep your posts civil.

Dave
 
I understand that you are the administrator of the forum, and I anticipate your reactions and behavior, but you are changing the meaning of my words, and obviously, do not fully understand the difference between (a) pointing out an inadequate reaction of an overly emotional person and (b) insults. Since when is being compared to children and childish behavior an insult? Or do you assume by your answer that adults should react to remarks made only from a position of strength, for example, by the police? And everyone else should smile politely in response to any absurdity said or made? If people do not correcting their social behavior with each other, they will become savages. And this is a correction and not an insult at all. Since any "emotional resentment" to the correct, but the short answer is just characteristic of children, due to their immaturity and inability to reflect. So many modern physically adults never grow up mentally. So if something "feels" offensive to you, it doesn't have to be. For me, for example, an insult is the fact that a person does not realize the value of information that is voluntarily shared with him and is looking for in phrases and formulations not a scientific meaning, but a reason and an opportunity to be offended. An adult will silently make conclusions, the child will begin to be rude.
 
Ultrax said:
Is there a professional forum here or a kindergarten? It's a child's attitude to stomp your feet wishing the sun would rise in the west and freak out if it doesn't, and refuse to accept the reality. Striving to achieve results is great, but it must be accompanied by the appropriate education, otherwise, every generation of people will reinvent the wheel. Modern people generally do not want to read and study diligently, they have become too concentrated on the "value" of their infantile impulses and emotional desires, ignoring the world around them. This path will bring us back to the level of the Neanderthals.
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Ultrax, I think you are stretching it a bit now.

In my eyes there is nothing childish about wanting to prove anyone wrong if someone make a claim.
They still have to prove that, in this case, they can refine Magnesium.
There is not much to gain but the right to brag, not very scientific that part though, but still.

Anyway it has nothing to do with stomping their feet and crying out that the world behaves in a certain way, at least in my eyes though.
Maybe it may be seen as a defiant reaction, even rude, to wanting to prove some one is wrong.
But if we do not, from time to time we will not go anywhere.
It can increase the knowledge and as such may or may not benefit the forum as a whole.
 
Perhaps I need to hang on Yggdrasil, the tree of life, for nine days and nine nights to find peace :)
 
Damn, that kinda fell off the deep end eeh? Wow.

People are curious and “can’t be done at home” is hardly sufficient information for anyone thinking through a project.

I poked fun at your “take it from me” mindset and you let it infest your mind to the point of a long pointed response. 🤔

Being proven wrong is not an insult. Simply the natural progression of things. Imagine a world where people blindly excepted everything some expert barked out online.
 
Magnesium refining is done on such a massive scale, that to do it, for profit, at home, is plain stupidity. Yes it can be done at home, if you are willing to spend $10 thousand, to make a pound of it. It just doesn't make economical sense to do it at home. Gold refining on the less then 1 T oz. scale, doesn't really make sense either. But it is fun and interesting to do, that's why we're here.
 
goldshark said:
Magnesium refining is done on such a massive scale, that to do it, for profit, at home, is plain stupidity. Yes it can be done at home, if you are willing to spend $10 thousand, to make a pound of it. It just doesn't make economical sense to do it at home. Gold refining on the less then 1 T oz. scale, doesn't really make sense either. But it is fun and interesting to do, that's why we're here.
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If you can work with liquid magnesium chloride on 10k equipment, I'd really like to see it :) I hope your home will be OK after that experiment. Rather, min $10 000 000 to get the first kg of pure magnesium :) But may be you can invent something new?
 

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Daniel0007a said:
Could the Magnesium metal be used to refine gold? It seems like a very hard and difficult project to complete.
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Yes, magnesium dust (you can use shavings) perfectly precipitates gold from the solution. Much faster and better (in quantitative meaning) than zinc. If there are any other metals in your solution, all of them will be precipitated too. It can be used to rescue all your gold, silver and PGM-metals (except Ir) from almost any tainted solution.
 
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