MAGNESIUM: Alliance reaches 140-day milestone

QUEBEC – Alliance Magnesium of Brossard, Que., has reached what it calls a very important milestone – 140 days of magnesium production from its pilot plant in Danville. The company now plans to move technical and financial matters forward for commercial production that needs an investment of $100 million. Alliance has developed a patent pending process alternative to conventional thermal production of magnesium. Thermal processes also produce unwanted carbon dioxide and sulphuric pollution because of their reliance on coal. Alliance hopes to begin commercial production at a rate of 50,000 tonnes in 2020 and create more than 350 jobs. The feed for this new process is 400 million tonnes of chrysotile asbestos tailings that have accumulated for decades in the region. Additional information is available at www.AllianceMagnesium.com. (Editor’s query: Do any of our readers know if Alliance is using the plant built by Noranda about 30 years ago? No one from Alliance was available to answer this question at press time.)