California start-up launches next-generation magnesium production technology

[Ben Graham]

Magrathea, a California-based start-up developing technology to produce carbon neutral light metal from seawater, has launched its next-generation magnesium chloride electrolyzer to split magnesium salts to make magnesium metal at its pilot facility in Oakland.

The launch is a component of its plans to establish the first new commercial-scale magnesium electrolyzer in the United States in the past 50 years, the US Department of Defense-backed company said.

Magnesium unlocks a wide range of applications, such as stiffening aluminum in alloys, steel making, nuclear inputs, automotive, aerospace, and next-generation defense applications.

Russia and China currently control 90% of the global primary magnesium supply and there is no significant producer in any NATO country.

The company said this milestone is a crucial step to advance the technical and data framework for a future scaled plant, adding that the project positions Magrathea’s technology to provide American companies with access to US-based critical mineral supply chains amid shifting trade policies and export controls.

“Magnesium is one of the most important critical materials, but NATO countries face a dire shortage of non-China supply,” CEO Alex Grant said in a news release.

“At our core, Magrathea’s innovative technology revitalizes a proven process with our own twist for considerable efficiency improvement and expense reduction,” Grant said. “We expect to reduce the technology’s operating expenses to make it cost-competitive with alternative production methods that exist today, including in China.”

Magrathea is in conversations with several major defense, chemical and mining industrial players to form a strategic partnership to scale up it technology, it said.

Over the coming months, the company plans to use data gathered from the pilot-scale electrolyzer to create a scalable technical model aimed at achieving the highest efficiencies from both environmental and economic perspectives.