Deformation characteristics of a recycled AZ91 Mg alloy, obtained from machined chips by solid state recycling, were investigated by conducting tensile tests between room temperature and 773 K in the strain rate range of 3.3 x 10(-2) -3.3 x 10(-4) s(-1). Tensile properties of the recycled specimen were compared with those of a reference specimen. The elongation to failure of the recycled specimen was lower than that of the reference specimen, except at room temperature and 753 K with 3.3 x 10(-4) s(-1). The recycled specimen contained oxide contaminants whose size was -2 mu m. Such oxide contaminants were responsible for the reduction in elongation to failure. The cavity formation due to the oxide contaminants was analyzed using existing theoretical models, and experimental results were compared with analytical results.