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

Gericke: Positive sentiment is being shown by major companies to revive South Africa’s ferrochrome industry. Tell us about it.

Creamer: When you think of chrome, think of South Africa, we’ve got the abundant supply. We used to have ferrochrome and we dominated in the world and that is five times more value than chrome. So, instead of just sending out the chrome, you send out the ferrochrome, which produces the stainless steel. Now, we lost that because of Eskom. The high price of the electricity knocked us out and then we just started supplying chrome to China and they made the ferrochrome. That is going to change, because we have now got new technology. It is coming through from African Rainbow Minerals and that is headed by Dr Patrice Motsepe. The new technology allows for the use of a mere a third of the electricity normally used and it turns the ferrochrome a climate-friendly green, as well. There’s huge activity behind the scenes at the moment to get going on that fast and to just retrofit existing smelters, which is possible and get our ferrochrome back to where it was.

Gericke: Anglo American Platinum will be dropping the Anglo American from its title as it declares independence.

Creamer: Fantastic declaration of independence by Anglo American Platinum, one of our biggest platinum producers and platinum miners and platinum marketers. It’s going to change its name this year. It ‘ going to go it alone. It’s going to be able to be far more flexible, able to do far more things, like even producing green hydrogen here, which has begun, and which can drive the mine haulage trucks. So, when the current parent company Anglo American consolidates in London, Anglo American Platinum will consolidate down here in Joburg and have a secondary listing in London, which is also a good link, and South Africans can make sure that we  get the best out of our platinum group metals.

Gericke: Green hydrogen is taking major new strides as a clean energy saviour.

Creamer: Green hydrogen is the only credible solution to fight climate change and the world has to learn that. When you see green hydrogen, think South Africa, because without platinum group metals, you can't get the green hydrogen. You’ve got use platinum group metals to electrolyse sea water or dirty water into green hydrogen. You’ve then got to use platinum group metals again in your fuel cell, which turns the green hydrogen into green electricity that drives everything from a truck to a ship. Now, a German company has been working flat out to make sure that they use less iridium, because that’s one of the problems. Iridium is scarce and if you want to produce that green nitrogen, you need the iridium, which is a platinum group metal. Heraeus has just made sure that electrolysers can also use ruthenium, which is another platinum group metal, and then this week, they went even further by striking up a partnership with a company that does nanotechnology, which will be using nano amounts of iridium, which is fantastic for platinum group metals producer South Africa and ensures that this energy savior spreads around the world.

Gericke: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing, editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly and he will be back with us At The Coalface at the same time next Friday.