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

Kamwendo: The world’s new energy era is creating major opportunities for the South African economy.

Creamer: I have been talking to Germans, Americans, Asians and people for Switzerland, they all come out with the same thing, South Africa is perfectly positioned for the new energy era. This energy era is centred around hydrogen and there is no doubt about that now. What hydrogen is going to do is that it is going to replace oil as we know it, but it is going to be a clean replacement, which is what the world is demanding.

When you think of what we’ve got here as people tell me, we have got the superior sun, prime wind and all the platinum catalysis in the ground. We are ideally positioned, there is no one else to become the future Saudi Arabia. What Saudi Arabia was for oil, we will be for the new era of hydrogen. We have got to move in here with quite briskness and we see around South Africa at the moment things are happening. We notice that out at Impala Platinum in Springs they already have a forklift that is powered by hydrogen.

We see that the Chinese have 400 000 busses now powered by hydrogen, of course, using platinum catalysis. There are 20 000 forklifts around the world. We know now that mining should be changed, because ventilation can be done not only more healthily but cheaper using the platinum catalysed fuel cells that we know all about. Thank goodness the Department of Science and Innovation has been up on this. They have got the Hydrogen South Africa (HySA) working in three different areas.

We are well abreast of what is happening in the world, because hydrogen can now be transported just like you transport oil in a tanker and it pulls up at a fuelling station and gets stored there. That is now what can be done with hydrogen. Even the existing infrastructure for the mobility of the cars can be used but there is so much more, because there is also stationary power that can be brought into areas with no electricity and there is heat that can come from this as well.

Kamwendo: Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) is calling on the government to adopt hydrogen as the new source of cheap and clean electricity feedstock.

Creamer: This is a major mining group, this is black owned, black controlled, black directed and black run. They are saying go for hydrogen now, that is the way to go and that is what RBPlat CEO Steve Phiri tells us, that there is no doubt that the South African entity can do very well from entering this hydrogen age. But, the other aspects to it, a lot of the mines are still using diesel equipment.

The World Health Organisation say diesel fumes cause cancer. Now, are we going to have a situation in the mines again where miners are going to be suing as they are doing with phthisis and silicosis, because there was no change. So, there is huge pressure building over mines. They have got to mine cleaner, particularly underground where there are already breathing constraints and ventilation constraints.

Now, it is clear that using our own platinum and fuel cells we can make that ventilation not only healthier, but cheaper. I mean, it's a no brainer.

Kamwendo: Global demand is soaring for “green” metals that help to lower climate change.

Creamer: It is just green all over the place. People want green in the world and you can see companies that used to fly the coal flag really high like Glencore, now telling you the Chinese demand for green metals is increasing exceptionally fast.

So, of course, this group is not only a producer of coal and they also committed themselves to the churches and to the United Nationals that they will not produce more than 150-million tonnes of coal. They have capped their production, but they also produce copper, cobalt and nickel. These are in huge demand at the moment, because there are so many electric vehicles coming through.

They are talking about China having 620-million electric vehicles. In the battery electric vehicles space, copper, cobalt and nickel is a thing its going for. Obviously we don’t have a lot of that, but even our platinum now is being considered for the battery electric vehicle to make those batteries not as heavy as they are. Also, manganese is being produced and we have a lot of it in such a way that it can become a green metal.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.