Magnesium alloys are being increasingly used in weight saving applications owing to its high strength to weight ratio equaling some of the titanium alloys in specific strength. The application of the magnesium alloys are also fast expanding from electronics to automobiles and aerospace applications. Despite all these advantages they are limited by limited formability and poor corrosion resistance. In this work, three different materials were selected for axisymmetric backward can extrusion tests namely; AZ31, AZ61 and the forging alloy, ZK 60.  To establish the size and capacity of the press required to perform these forming trials and to know the formability, simulation using Finite Element Analysis was carried out with the known properties of the magnesium alloy.  A die set with a die shoe was designed to perform the backward extrusion trials. The area reduction ratio for backward can extrusion was 1.7 and simulation was performed using the same conditions to establish the formability and loads.  The temperature was varied with a temperature controller built in-house from RT (room temperature) to 300°C. However, the results provided below only includes those tests carried out at 150°C, 175°C, 200°C and 250°C as the billets exhibited shear failure at temperatures lower than 150°C. Simulation results showed that magnesium is easily formed at elevated temperatures of 300°C. However AZ61 samples did not show any evidence of crack formation during ejection of the formed sample.