From Healthcare to Green Technology, Magnesium’s Sheen is Intensifying

Magnesium is familiar to most people as a nutrient that is plentiful in vegetables like spinach, artichokes, and broccoli. The minor metal’s potential, however, extends far beyond nutritional benefits, and may prove pivotal in developing clean energy technology, enhancing defense systems, and helping the injured heal more quickly. With the potential for more output of the metal within the United States and elsewhere, magnesium’s allure is brighter than ever.

As the race to develop sustainable alternative energy sources intensifies, the possibility of using magnesium in ion batteries has come under the spotlight. Car makers, particularly Ford (NYSE:F) and Honda (NYSE:HMC), have been looking into developing magnesium-ion batteries that will not only have a longer battery life compared to their present rechargeable counterparts, but will also be lightweight and allow automobiles to be far more energy efficient as a result.

In wind turbines, the wind energy that is captured is stored as hydrogen and uses magnesium as the metal and mineral oil as the liquefying engine. Moreover, wind turbine blades may potentially be made partly of magnesium given the metal’s durability and light weight.

Output outside of China seen picking up

One pervading concern regarding making greater use of magnesium is securing a steady supply of the metal. Currently, China provides over 90 percent of the world’s total supply, and US Magnesium is the only producer of the metal in the US. The Salt Lake City-based company’s existence hinges not only on continuous demand from the US Department of Defense, but also on anti-dumping tariffs imposed upon Chinese magnesium. Still, US Magnesium’s survival has heartened Molycor Gold to beef up its magnesium business. The Vancouver-based company announced earlier this week that it has changed its name to Nevada Clean Magnesium (TSXV:NVM) in order to better reflect its focus on the development of its Tami Mosi magnesium project in Nevada, according to company president Edward Lee.

Nevada Clean Magnesium’s Nevada project is expected to produce 30,000 tonnes a year for the next 30 years, and “represents an opportunity to be at the forefront of America’s efforts on light weighting of our vehicles and mitigating our future dependence on foreign metal supply,” stated Rob Bailey, an advisory board member.

Expanded health benefits

The briefest glance at a nutritional table demonstrates the importance of ingesting magnesium as part of a healthy diet. Yet it is not simply as a nutritional supplement that the element can help the human body. Research is underway at Britain’s Magnesium Elektron to develop medical implants made with the metal that will be absorbed by the body after use. The bio-absorbable magnesium alloy would be used to make Synermag implants such as pins to reset shattered bones. Granted, the project is still in the research stage, and the company has not indicated when the product could be available on the market. Nevertheless, “in this developing field of healthcare materials, we have combined our existing material know-how with new ideas and technologies; supporting the research drive of medical device companies to produce bio-absorbable metallic implants that offer improved patient outcomes,” stated Graham Wardlow, Managing Director of UK operations. Magnesium Elektron is part of Luxfer Holdings, which specializes in developing aluminum and zirconium as well as magnesium.

Stirring investors’ imaginations and wallets

Mining for magnesium and other metals may go well beyond the earth’s surface. This month, a slew of high-profile figures from Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology joined forces to invest in Planetary Resources, an asteroid mining company seeking to expand the earth’s natural resources. Movie director James Cameron and Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt are amongst the handful who are putting money into what the company describes as a “modern day gold rush” to discover metals in outer space.

“The Earth is a crumb in a supermarket full of resources,” according to Planetary Resources’ co-founder, Peter Diamandis. While the platinum group of metals is expected to be the focus of the company’s mining interests, and the financial viability of such space mining is unlikely at least in the near term, investors’ interest in mining for metals in non-traditional regions has certainly risen as a result. Opportunities for mining groups both large and small to seek out and capitalize on magnesium’s potential are plentiful. The question of how that roadmap can be paved remains.

Securities Disclosure: I, Shihoko Goto, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.