April 15, 2026
Cheyenne, WY – Big Blue Technologies (BBT) has broken ground on its commercial demonstration plant near Cheyenne, Wyoming, developed in collaboration with site partner Garrison Minerals. The facility marks BBT’s transition from pilot-scale validation to its first commercial-scale production footprint.
The plant will house three modular smelters with a combined production capacity of at least 200 tons of magnesium metal per year. Each unit runs BBT’s proprietary ore-to-ingot process, taking raw ore through reduction and purification in a single continuous line to produce finished magnesium ingot, without relying on intermediate processing steps or outside refining. The modular design allows BBT to replicate and scale individual smelter units as demand grows, rather than engineering a single large-scale facility from scratch.
BBT expects to produce its first metal from the new plant by January 2027. The milestone will represent the company’s first output at commercial scale and a critical proof point for its broader plan to expand production capacity in the years that follow.
“Breaking ground on this plant is the moment years of pilot work translate into real production,” said Aaron Palumbo, CEO of BBT. “Garrison Minerals has been an outstanding partner in getting us to this point, and reaching first metal in January 2027 puts us on a clear path toward establishing a durable, domestic source of magnesium.”
The Cheyenne facility builds on BBT’s pilot operations and recent Wyoming- and DOE-supported work to scale its modular smelter technology, positioning the company to help rebuild a domestic magnesium supply chain that has been almost entirely dependent on foreign sources.
UPDATE: As of August 12, 2026, the smelter building has been completed with all major equipment sourced and ordered.