The price of magnesium metal has gone up 500 per cent from 2,000 US dollars per ton to 10,000 in a month.

Australian Science Teacher Jacob Strickling explains the importance of magnesium as a material and why the price has skyrocketed.

Thousands of UK businesses rely on magnesium and a shortage of supply threatens millions of jobs.

According to Strickling, 97 per cent of the UK supply comes from China.

China is responsible for 85 per cent of the world's supply and has recently stopped exporting magnesium and so world supplies are quickly running out, driving up the price.

In the last month of October 2021 - The price of magnesium metal has gone up 500% from US$2,000 per ton to US$10,000 per ton.
In this video, Australian Science Teacher - Jacob Strickling explains the importance of Magnesium as a material, using some interesting Science demonstrations and explains why the price has skyrocketed.
Magnesium is an excellent structural metal. It is lightweight and very strong. It is relatively easy to shape by machining. Magnesium is used in the building, automobile, aerospace and aircraft industries. Magnesium is used to allow with aluminium and even iron to make much strong and corrosion resistant alloys.
Thousands of UK businesses rely on Magnesium and a shortage of supply threatens millions of jobs.
Magnesium is a reactive metal and so is not found on the earth surface in its pure form like gold. Magnesium is actually the 8th most abundant element on Earth. It is mined as compounds of Magnesium Carbonate and requires a vast amount of energy to refine it. Strickling demonstrates this by igniting some magnesium and showing how much energy is given out - as this is the amount of energy required to extract the magnesium from the ore.
97% of the UK supply comes from China. China is responsible for 85% of the worlds supply and has recently stopped exporting magnesium and so world supplies are quickly running out, driving up the price.
In order to meet emissions targets and due to a shortage of energy China has shut down factories and refineries producing the magnesium. One reason for the reduction of energy is that China has stopped buying Australian coal causing widespread energy shortages.