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Metal Without Mining

magratheametals.com

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Re: Metal Without Mining

#51

Post by marcosdumay »

geuis wrote: post #43

This entire website and company reads like a penny pink sheets stock scam. "Magrathea sells metal using multi-year supply agreements in countries with enforceable contract law. Supply agreements allow our partners to build in magnesium with confidence. We prevent price instability from Chinese trade manipulation so the innovative products of our partners can succeed in the market." There's absolutely no information o…

Somehow we should expect them to be able to purify magnesium from brine, and yet not be on the market selling lithium. That's extremely odd.

Edit: Turns out that no, it's simpler to separate magnesium and calcium than lithium, even those existing in much smaller amounts. Those metals form many solid ionic compounds, with anions that would keep sodium and lithium soluble.

Re: Metal Without Mining

#52

Post by jacquesm »

dunham wrote: post #45
jacquesm wrote: post #36

If you're wondering about where the name Magrathea comes from: https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Magrathea

I knew it was from the book, but I'd forgotten exactly what Magrathea was, so I started reading the article. Halfway through I got a kernel panic (macos 12.6.2 / intel).

Probably just some old cyber defense systems taking the occasional potshot to relieve the monotony ;)

Re: Metal Without Mining

#53

Post by dzuc »

klyrs wrote: post #19
proee wrote: post #2

Isn't Magnesium highly flammable/explosive? How do you protect parts made from this metal?

Old timers recall the infamous case of the NeXT Cube... https://web.archive.org/web/20000817013818/http://simson.net...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nitroba/albums/721575944354804...

Re: Metal Without Mining

#54

Post by londons_explore »

proee wrote: post #2

Isn't Magnesium highly flammable/explosive? How do you protect parts made from this metal?

Oddly, tiny chunks/slivers of magnesium are very flammable, but a big chunk of it is pretty much impossible to set fire to.

Source: I was disappointed to buy a few lbs of magnesium to burn on the bonfire, only to find that chucking a lump of it on the bonfire doesn't even burn. Shavings did though.

Re: Metal Without Mining

#55

Post by londons_explore »

geuis wrote: post #43

This entire website and company reads like a penny pink sheets stock scam. "Magrathea sells metal using multi-year supply agreements in countries with enforceable contract law. Supply agreements allow our partners to build in magnesium with confidence. We prevent price instability from Chinese trade manipulation so the innovative products of our partners can succeed in the market." There's absolutely no information o…

I bet this company, currently at R&D stage with no product, consists of <= 1 technical person...

Re: Metal Without Mining

#56

Post by runnerup »

marcosdumay wrote: post #51
geuis wrote: post #43

This entire website and company reads like a penny pink sheets stock scam. "Magrathea sells metal using multi-year supply agreements in countries with enforceable contract law. Supply agreements allow our partners to build in magnesium with confidence. We prevent price instability from Chinese trade manipulation so the innovative products of our partners can succeed in the market." There's absolutely no information o…

Somehow we should expect them to be able to purify magnesium from brine, and yet not be on the market selling lithium. That's extremely odd. Edit: Turns out that no, it's simpler to separate magnesium and calcium than lithium, even those existing in much smaller amounts. Those metals form many solid ionic compounds, with anions that would keep sodium and lithium soluble.

The majority of the magnesium used for WW2 explosives was produced from brine near Freeport, TX. (I think? need to double-check this)

Edit: During WW2 additional production facilities around the USA were brought online. Before and after WW2, except for a moment during the Korean War, Dow's facility in Freeport, TX was the only producer of magnesium in the USA. It peaked in capacity in the 1970's. There were several other endeavors by other companies to produce magnesium over time with different technologies. Most magnesium production in the USA has been eliminated for economic reasons.

Re: Metal Without Mining

#57

Post by elihu »

83 wrote: post #10
proee wrote: post #2

Isn't Magnesium highly flammable/explosive? How do you protect parts made from this metal?

Magnesium parts are already in widespread use. The covers you see on the sides of motorcycle engines/transmissions are often magnesium. In solid form the risk is mitigated because there isn't enough surface area for the reaction with oxygen, it's the powder/shavings that are a concern. You can actually weld magnesium parts without it igniting. Reading up on it a little more - it seems with enough heat solid magnesium…

Magnesium isn't entirely without risk. Here's some firefighters spraying water on a Jeep Liberty (see 1:11): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY9ri-UOoLo

Re: Metal Without Mining

#58

Post by ChuckMcM »

whatshisface wrote: post #24
ChuckMcM wrote: post #16

If you are wondering "how" they are doing this, I believe this company is the externalization of this research: https://www.innovationnewsnetwork.com/new-method-extract-mag... (Kind of hard to pin down exactly since they don't say a lot about how they are doing it, but a quick check suggests this is the only "new" thing in extracting magnesium recently and Magrathea is a young company[1]) [1] https://www.crunchbase.c…

Externalization? Do you mean commercialization?

Effectively yes. I tend to think of research to product in two phases, phase one is "externalization" which involves taking something done in the lab and reproducing it in a scalable process, step two is "commercialization" which is to capture market share. I use two phases because each phase captures very different risk profiles relative to the technology.

Re: Metal Without Mining

#59

Post by jillesvangurp »

IntrepidWorm wrote: post #18
jillesvangurp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh no. Oceans are big. Really big. Unbelievably big even. We're talking about filtering tiny fractions of ocean water, and nowhere close to all of it. Literally a drop in the ocean in comparison. So, no. This is not a serious concern.

Speaking strictly of mineral removal this rings true. However, processing large volumes of seawater can still have a detrimental effect on the local ecosystem, because pumping large volumes of seawater is extremely stressful to all of the seawater-loving organisms that get pulled along for the ride.

Depends. Shallow coastal waters without a lot of currents would be an issue. That's often the issue with desalination. The solution is running pipes to deeper waters where whatever you can pump there is going to be a drop in the ocean. Pipes and pumps are of course more expensive.

Re: Metal Without Mining

#60

Post by ignite »

geuis wrote: post #43

This entire website and company reads like a penny pink sheets stock scam. "Magrathea sells metal using multi-year supply agreements in countries with enforceable contract law. Supply agreements allow our partners to build in magnesium with confidence. We prevent price instability from Chinese trade manipulation so the innovative products of our partners can succeed in the market." There's absolutely no information o…

I'm sure people will be using ChatGPT to fill out descriptions of new companies soon, if they aren't already.
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