Silicothermic reactions are thermic chemical reaction

Chemical reaction

A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another. Chemical reactions can be either spontaneous, requiring no input of energy, or non-spontaneous, typically following the input of some type of energy, such as heat, light or electricity...

s using silicon

Silicon

Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. A tetravalent metalloid, it is less reactive than its chemical analog carbon, the nonmetal directly above it in the periodic table, but more reactive than germanium, the metalloid directly below it in the table...

 as the reducing agent

Redox

Redox reactions describe all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation state changed....

 at high temperature (800-1400°C). The most prominent example is the Pidgeon process

Pidgeon process

The Pidgeon process is one of the methods of magnesium metal production, via a silicothermic reduction. Practical production requires roughly 35-40 MWh/ton of metal produced, which is on par with the molten salt electrolytic methods of production, though above the 7 MWh/ton theoretical...

 for reducing magnesium

Magnesium

Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg, atomic number 12, and common oxidation number +2. It is an alkaline earth metal and the eighth most abundant element in the Earth's crust and ninth in the known universe as a whole...

 metal from ore

Ore

An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals with important elements including metals. The ores are extracted through mining; these are then refined to extract the valuable element....

s. Other processes include the Bolzano process and the magnetherm process. All three are commercially used for magnesium production.

The silicothermic process for magnesium production was developed commercially in Canada during the second World War.