Every Friday, SAfm’s radio anchor speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly. Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

Host: Strong steps are being taken to ensure that demand is ongoing for South Africa’s platinum group metals.

Creamer: Platinum Group Metals have become very important for South Africa. They are bringing in a lot of revenue and for the next ten years, the producers of these, the mining companies, are quite confident that there will be demand. But there are poised to be structural changes in the future, ten years ahead, that could mean that the demand declines or otherwise the demand surges. So, they are doing a lot of research at the moment and they are employing a lot of different companies and academia to plot the next path for platinum group metals.

There are many paths, but they want a very strong path, like we have had for platinum group metals going into cars and making sure that they do not pollute the earth. Now, when electric cars start coming in in big numbers, demand could change. A lot of people are saying, well, green hydrogen demand will take over at that point, which means that the demand for platinum group metals could surge, but if there is more use of electrons rather than the green hydrogen, it could be different. So they are working very intensely to make sure that in ten years’ time, they'll still have a strong market.

Host: A South African working group has been discussing hydrogen and fuel cell development at top level in China.

Creamer: This was incredible, the Deputy President of South Africa, Paul Mashatile, led a delegation to China, a working group. They covered a lot of areas, but one of the key areas that this working group covered was green hydrogen and fuel cell development. Now, that is very important for South Africa, because we are just saying we need a future for platinum group metals. If we go into green hydrogen and fuel cell development, there will be a surge of demand for our platinum group metals. Why is that? Because to produce the green hydrogen, the electrolyser has to be catalysed by platinum group metals, which we supply in more abundance than anyone else in the world.

If you then take that green hydrogen and you pass it through a fuel cell in order to get green electricity so it can drive your car or bus or anything else, you then also need platinum group metals. So, at both levels platinum group metals are needed. That is why although, there is concern about what the demand will come from in ten years’ time, it could be a huge surge, particularly if you look at China and what it has done in terms of solar power. There was a time when solar panels were so expensive that you didn't even think of solar power. When the Chinese grasped the solar panel, they brought it down the cost curve to such a point that it is just used all around the world now.

People are thinking that as part of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan to 2030 that is now under way, China could do the same thing with green hydrogen as it did with polar panels. If China does bring green hydrogen down the cost curve like they did with the solar panels, the whole world will go for green hydrogen, because everybody's got sun and wind and water, they don't have to then rely so heavily any more on oil imports, which is a big thing and results in huge amounts of money leaving the country to pay for that oil.

Host: A project is under way in KwaZulu-Natal to add value to the titanium in mineral sands.

Creamer: Now everybody in Africa is saying don't just extract the metal, put it on the train and send it off. No, what modern-day Africa is beginning to insist upon is that African value should be added to the minerals and metals that are mined where they are mined to uplift Africa’s domestic economies, so what we are seeing is Nyanza Light Metals doing just that in KwaZulu-Natal.

They know on the beaches there is a mineral sand called ilmenite that is being mined by several companies, but what those companies have been doing is just mining it and exporting it. Other people then have been processing it and adding huge value to it. Now, Nyanza Light Metals, has already started construction of their plant. They are going to take that ilmenite and take it up the value curve by turning it into titanium dioxide. Then they estimate that doing so will probably give then ten times more value when exported in unprocessed form.

Plant construction is now already under way and they are hoping that by 2029, they will be exporting titanium dioxide, which is in solid demand around the world, because it's a pigment used in paint and all products that need pigment. They have already been able to pre-sell everything they are proposing to produce. So, the banks have taken a look at this and said, wow, they are already contracted to buy your titanium dioxide before you’ve even produced it, and, as a result, the banks are funding the project.

Host: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing, editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly.