Abstract: A and apparatus for melting and refining of magnesium and magnesium alloys is used both for melting of ingots and remelting of return metal. Metal is melted by pumping an overheated salt melt from a heating zone in a salt melt furnace and distributing it over the metal, which is placed in a basket above the liquid level in the furnace. The metal melts and is immediately removed from the basket without being further heated. A melt composition rich in calcium chloride with a content of calcium fluoride is preferably used.

Abstract: Raw magnesium is charged into a precipitation chamber in a refining furnace beneath the metal surface as a stream directed toward a salt layer beneath the metal. The resultant precipitated sludge is directed along a sloped bottom in the chamber to an adjacent accumulating chamber. Magnesium rises in the precipitation chamber and passes through openings in partition walls between adjacent precipitation chambers. The purest magnesium from an upper metal layer in one chamber is expelled to a lower level in next chamber in the process direction. The refining furnace comprises an accumulating chamber for sludge and plurality of successively arranged precipitation chambers divided from each other by vertical walls. The openings in the partition walls between adjacent precipitation chambers are designed as skewed channels with an inlet at a higher level than an outlet in the following chamber.