Magnesium alloys posses unique mechanical and physical characteristics making them attractive light-weight materials for several strategic industries such as electronics, computer, automotive and aerospace. Due to their high chemical reactivity and poor corrosion resistance, the protection of magnesium alloys from corrosion is one of the hottest topics in materials science and engineering. Addition of rare-earth metals (RE) as alloying elements to magnesium alloys is one of the common approaches to improve their mechanical properties and, sometimes, the corrosion resistance. However, the potential difference between the RE metals phase formed in the Mg matrix enhances the galvanic corrosion at the interfaces where RE metals inert phase acts as cathode and the active Mg matrix acts as anode. This paper introduces a simple one-step clean conversion coating treatment for improving the protection of RE containing magnesium EV31A-T6 alloy in Cl- media. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.