The processes of Mg oxidation by water in presence of chlorides of iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, sodium, potassium, and magnesium as well as certain bromides and iodides of aforementioned metals. The evaluated salt concentrations vary from 1 to 0.03 M and molar ratios of metal to Mg from 1:1 to 0.0075:1. It was established that oxidation accelerates in presence of all of the evaluated salts, but reaches its maximum of 360 mL/g Mg.min with nearly 100% yield by Mg amount in presence of 0.056 M CuCl2 in the 0.85 M NaCl solution. It is speculated that under these conditions, Mg oxidation proceeds according to the electrochemical corrosion mechanism. Copyright (C) 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.