The recovery of magnesium from magnesite tailings in aqueous hydrochloric acid solutions by acid leaching was studied in a batch reactor using hydrochloric acid solutions. Subsequent, production of magnesium chloride hexahydrate (MgCl(2 center dot)6H(2)O) from leaching solution was also investigated. The effects of temperature, acid concentration, solid-to-liquid ratio, particle size and stirring speed on the leaching process were investigated. The pseudo-second-order reaction model seemed to be appropriate for the magnesium leaching. The activation energy of the leaching process was estimated to be 62.4 kJ mol(-1). Finally, MgCl(2 center dot)6H(2)O in a purity of 91% was produced by evaporation of leaching solution obtained at a temperature of 40 degrees C, 1.0 M acid, solid-to-liquid ratio of 10 g/L, particle size of 100 mu m, stirring speed of 1250 rpm and leaching time of 60 min. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.