Tenova for Magnesium Oxide Production Plant

Tenova’s spray roaster technology was chosen for a demonstration Magnesium Oxide production plant in Australia at the forefront of environmental sustainability.

Tenova was awarded a contract by Latrobe Magnesium Limited (LMG), a company based in Australia. The scope of work is the engineering, supply, and supervision of the Magnesium Oxide (MgO) production plant at Latrobe Valley, Victoria, Australia, a demonstration plant using a world-first process of combined hydromet / thermal reduction.

As part of the first phase of the project, Tenova’s scope of supply will include a magnesium oxide (MgO) plant, with spray roaster technology – a commonly utilised technology in the steel industry that was adapted for use in LMG  flowsheet for extracting and producing magnesium metal – with a production capacity of 300 kg/h.

The demonstration plant will initially have capacity of 1,000 tonnes of magnesium (Mg) metal per year, and in the second stage, LMG intends to develop a commercial scale operation with an envisaged production capacity in the range of 10,000 to 40,000 tons per annum of magnesium metal.

Thanks to its world-first patented hydrometallurgical extraction and thermal reduction process, the plant will harvest magnesium metal from a fly ash resource – a waste stream from brown coal power generation. The project is at the forefront of environmental sustainability as it converts nearly 100% of the resource into valuable commodities. The released CO₂ emissions are approximately 50% less than comparable magnesium production plants.