The invention relates to a process for smelting magnesium through melting reduction. The process takes dolomite as main raw material, alumina and silicon dioxide as slagging agents and ferrosilicon alloy as a reducing agent, and comprises the following steps: 1, calcining dolomite to obtain calcined dolomite; 2, proportioning four materials, namely calcined dolomite, alumina, silicon dioxide and ferrosilicon alloy in certain percentage by mass; 3, uniformly mixing four proportioned furnace burdens, putting the mixture into a reaction container and performing reduction reaction at 1,550 to 1,650 DEG C under the pressure of 1,000 to 4,000 Pa; and 4, performing condensation and collection on the obtained magnesium vapor to obtain magnesium metal. As the furnace burdens are in a completely melted state at about 1,600 DEG C, reaction is performed in a fully liquid state, thus reaction speed is greatly raised. Meanwhile, the furnace burdens need no crushing, fine grinding or briquetting andcan be directly mixed and put into the reaction container, so the reaction is simple to control and easy to operate.