A mixed oxide catalyst was prepared from a binary hydrogen storage alloy, Mg2Cu. Oxidation of Mg2Cu alloy gave mixed oxides of MgO and CuO, which showed high activity and high selectivity for the synthesis of alcohols from methyl linoleate. On the other hand, a catalyst prepared by the coprecipitation method deactivated with time. The nature of the catalytically active site was discussed on the basis of characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and infrared analysis (I.R.). The difference between these two catalysts could be attributed to differences in the co-ordination number of copper species at the surface.