Abstract: With the increasing need for lightweight materials, magnesium and its alloys have been widely used because of their light quality, high specific strength and specific stiffness, and the development of the magnesium industry has attracted increasing attention. The Pidgeon process is the main production process of magnesium smelting in China. However, with the implementation of the green and low-carbon development concept, the process has many shortcomings, such as low heat transfer efficiency, long reduction cycle, high energy consumption and large emissions, which has been restricting the development of the magnesium smelting industry. After years of research, scholars have made a series of achievements in improving the heat transfer efficiency of magnesium smelting, reducing reduction temperature, shortening the reduction cycle, etc. In this paper, the research progress in improving the heat transfer efficiency of magnesium smelting was reviewed in detail from three aspects including reductant, process conditions and heat transfer device, and suggestions and ideas on the existing magnesium smelting technology were put forward for reference only.