The silicothermic reduction of dolomite was first developed by Amati in 1938 at the University of Padua. Immediately afterward, an industrial production was established in Bolzano (Italy), using what is now better known as the Bolzano process.
A few years later in 1939, when Canada and its allies entered WW2, they were short on supplies that required magnesium such as bombs, other military devices and aluminum alloys needed for aircraft. Dr. Lloyd Montgomery Pidgeon at the National Research Council was able to create a method for extracting magnesium from dolomite in a vacuum at high temperature with ferrosilicon as the reducing agent. At this time, the ferrosilicon method was known, however it had yet to be commercialized. By early 1942, a successful pilot test took place.
Since then, the Pidgeon process has continually been widely used, especially in China, the worlds largest magnesium producer.