HOUSTON, June 18th (Argus) - Based in California, Magrathea and based in Texas, Tetra Technologies, have jointly established a production facility in Arkansas to produce the first batch of native magnesium metal. Magrathea stated that the joint venture has produced metallic magnesium from brine with a purity greater than 99.9%, in accordance with the ASTM B92 specification of the American Society for Materials and Testing. Tetra signed a terms list with Magrathea in November last year to form this joint venture, integrating Magrathea's magnesium extraction and salt water electrolysis technology from Tetra. Magrathea plans to establish a commercial-scale plant at Tetra's 750,000-pound-per-year bromine plant. This plant will be the only new magnesium metal smelting plant in the United States. In January this year, Magrathea signed a purchase and distribution agreement with the British metal trading company Wogen regarding the metallic magnesium produced by the proposed smelting plant.
