Western Magnesium Corporation held an official signing and unveiling ceremony for its first commercial production site in Harrison County, Ohio. The company signed partnership agreements with numerous economic development groups in Harrison County for the construction of its plant.
“Management spent 16 months vetting other states and searching for the best opportunity for our first commercial plant,” said Sam Ataya, executive president and CEO of Western Magnesium. “This process was made easier by the hard work and support from JobsOhio, the local businesses and the people from Harrison County by their hard work and support and by graciously opening their county and embracing our company.”
The company initiated the planning phase for the project in 2020, when it began looking for a new location for its commercial production plant. Harrison County was chosen over several other locations throughout the U.S. The 122-acre property is adjacent to the future home of a modern mixed fuels power plant, which will be able provide power to for clean magnesium production. It is also close to dolomite supply and has rail and highway infrastructure that will carry the finished magnesium product to industries across the U.S.
The 100,000 metric tonne scalable magnesium plant will utilize a proprietary continuous silicothermic extraction technology for the production of low-cost, green magnesium metal from dolomite. This process significantly reduces labor and energy costs relative to current magnesium production methods and processes, while being environmentally friendly. The new plant is expected to produce 10% of the world’s current supply and will employ over 200 full time and 500 support personnel.
“We look forward to working with Western Magnesium towards the successful completion of this innovative project that is over a one-billion-dollar investment with the potential of growing jobs.” said Nicholas Homrighausen, executive director of the Harrison County Community Improvement Corporation.
Bill Johnson, U.S. Congressman, added that construction of the plant was important to the country. “Magnesium is a critical metal that goes into manufacturing and industries like automotive, aviation,” he said. “You don’t have those manufacturing industries in America if you can’t extract magnesium.”
Western Magnesium plans to break ground on the plant within the next eighteen months.