Microstructure and magnetic properties of binary Mn54-Al46 alloy particulates obtained by severe plastic deformation processing via end-milling and annealing

•Facile fabrication of micron-sized nanostructured ε-phase Mn-Al particulates by end-milling.•These ε-phase particulates are suitable for preparation of τ-phase particulates with promising permanent magnet properties.•Retention of sub-micrometer grain size τ-phase after isothermal annealing of the ε-phase particulates.•New method with reduced number of processing steps for particulate-based fabrication of τ-phase Mn-Al permanent magnets.