Re: Magnesium. There is a write up in the CIM bulletin for June 2000 that I was just given, on Noranda's Magnola Plant. www.cim.org then go to bulletin, and then I get stymied as I can not open the article. From the hard copy. Tailings are from former Johns Manville site at Asbestos, Quebec. "are directly adjacent to the plant, and contain 23% magnesium, above ground and already mined. The new plant will allow for the lowest cost of magnesium in the world." Plant has initial annual rated capacity of 63,000 tons, with an infrastructure designed to allow doubling of the capacity, capital cost was $733 million, will produce 16% of world supply. "Magnesium is the eight most abundant element in the earth's crust, and third among metals" "There are two processes for producing magnesium: the most common is electrolysis, and the other is a batch process using silicothermal reduction." "At Magnola, the technology used is a hydrometallurgical process followed by electrolysis. One of main competitors is Norsk Hydro who import magnesite from China, and I would assume use electrolysis.
I hope Murdo concentrates on the PGMs. |
