JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Great strides are being made in the green hydrogen economy in particularly China and Europe, journalists heard during a media conference, where Northam Platinum emphasised the “absolutely essential” contribution being made to the world by platinum group metals (PGMs).

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed PGMs mining company pointed out that “the world doesn’t just need PGMs", but that the world "absolutely must have PGMs” to exist as we know it.

This is because the chemical properties of PGMs accelerate reactions at lower temperatures and pressures than would normally be the case.

For example, automotive exhaust cleaning reactions simply wouldn't happen without the presence of palladium, platinum and rhodium, and pollutants would go out of vehicle exhausts into the atmosphere. If the world did not have PGMs, a "very, very dirty" atmospheric condition would result in towns and cities.

When you add PGMs to the mix, they promote reactions "at the same atmospheric pressure and the same temperature, and the reactions then happen", Northam Platinum CEO Paul Dunne explained in response to Mining Weekly.

The other important aspects of the metals are that “they remain unchanged”, which is, in fact, the definition of a catalyst – it promotes the reaction without being a participant in the reaction, allowing for nigh "ad infinitum” recycling.

OIL INDUSTRY ROLE

Reactions are promoted in a similar fashion by PGMs in the oil and gas industry, where a barrel of oil cannot be split into its constituents without PGMs. 

Industrial applications for PGMs are, in fact, so broad that “without them, we wouldn’t have the world that we live in today”, Northam Platinum executive: new business Damian Smith added.

While a growing global population is increasing the need for the efficiencies that PGMs provide, PGMs are geographically constrained, with 80% of them in the ground in South Africa’s Bushveld.

Moreover, near-surface PGMs have been largely mined out and investment into new projects will require longer lead times, which is needed because of new applications arising especially on the clean energy front.

Government policy and funding is bringing considerable research and development to bear, which is needed to bring the hydrogen economy to life, to a point where Dunne is emphatic about its emergence.

“The Thirties is definitely the decade of the hydrogen economy. There are great strides being made, particularly in China and Europe,” said Dunne.

CHROME, PGM LINK

Chrome is the bonus of the PGM companies that mine upper group two (UG2) orebody at this time of low PGM pricing. Northam is among the companies that have UG2 and has been exporting chrome, which was not prevalent in South Africa’s past because of the former strong focus on using the chrome to produce higher-value ferrochrome.

Northam mines two orebodies, the Merensky, which is a nickel-sulphide-based orebody, plus the chromite-based UG2.

Chrome is used to make stainless steel, demand for which is growing at a compound average growth rate of more than 4%, although the high cost of Eskom's power needed to produce ferrochrome has given China the upper hand in ferrochrome.

Unlike the situation in the past, it’s cheaper to produce ferrochrome in China, even taking into account the cost of transporting South Africa’s chrome to Maputo, China, and then across the land again by another 1 000-km-plus to ferrochrome smelters in Inner Mongolia.