Magnesium plant will bring 200 full-time jobs to eastern Ohio

CADIZ — Western Magnesium Corp. will be building a nearly $1 billion manufacturing facility at the Cadiz Industrial Park that will create 200 full-time and 500 part-time jobs.

Company officials and area elected officials gathered Tuesday to unveil a sign marking the site of the proposed 300,000-square-foot plant. it will be built on a 122-acre site at 43022 Industrial Park Road. 

"It's not a cheap plant to build, but it's an exciting opportunity because we're also building an eco-friendly environment," said Sam Ataya, the company's executive president and CEO. "Our process of producing magnesium metal will be the cleanest in the world. In fact, it will be the cleanest metal to produce now."

He noted that this will be the first magnesium plant built in the United States in the last 50 years.

"It's shocking when you think about it because as a nation, we think that we're in control of what we're doing," he said. "What this is all about for us is control of resource production and manufacturing within our borders.

"We really found out that during COVID that we don't have a lot of it. Supply chains are broken. We don't have the equipment that we need. We don't have the supplies that we need. Why is that? Because we're not developing, producing, manufacturing. We're not in control of our own resources."

Magnesium is a light-weight but durable metal used in the automotive and aviation industries.

Western Magnesium is looking to use a continuous silicothermic extraction technology to produce magnesium, which significantly reduces labor and energy costs relative to current methods and processes, while being environmentally friendly. 

The company worked with JobsOhio and the Harrison County Community Improvement Corp. to find the site for the facility.

"Today commences the beginning of the due diligence period where they're on the fast track to build a state-of-the-art facility here in eastern Ohio, Harrison County," said Nick Homrighausen, CIC executive director.

"We're trying to build the new global economy here, and it's building a great eco-system that will continue to attract and diversify businesses, with Harrison County as the epicenter of that. This will impact all of our surrounding counties."

Dale Arbaugh, president of the CIC board, said the plant will not only bring 200 new jobs to Harrison County, but also hundreds of jobs during the construction phase.  

"That's going to be the opportunity for the next generation to stay here in the county, instead of having to find jobs elsewhere and having to relocate," he said. "So I'm excited for that since the coal companies left whenever I was coming through high school. I know what it was like to lose friends and how things changed."

U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta, said construction of the plant was important to the country.

"Magnesium is a critical metal that goes into manufacturing, industries like automotive, aviation," he said. "You don't have those manufacturing industries in America if you can't extract magnesium.

"We've talked a lot over the last few years about the importance of supply chain management and having trade deals around the world to combat what China is doing. China is trying to take over everything, it seems like. We're the only thing standing in their way."

He said the United States is the largest economy in the world and "we're going to remain that way."

"Part of this effort is to bring back that supply chain with a critical metal like magnesium," Johnson said. "Today China holds about 85% of that market. We need to be back in that market. I'm glad to see what's happening here."

Western Magnesium plans to break ground on the plant in the next 18 to 24 months.