Every Friday morning, SAfm’s AMLive’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: A 200% increase in fuel cell vehicle sales is boosting the demand outlook for platinum.

Creamer: In the first five months of this year, China produced and put on the road 18 000 fuel cell vehicles. These are busses and light heavy-duty vehicles. We know that Japan says it will have 200 000 fuel cell vehicles by 2025. China itself is saying that they will have 1-million by 2030.

That is great news for platinum, but the race is on, because in other centers we see the electric car and the Tesla probably getting into a better position. London is saying that they want all petrol and diesel vehicles off the road by 2040. This is going to start a momentum and the platinum fraternity needs to get in. We want to see FCEVs, which are fuel cell electric vehicles, because they pull a lot of platinum and we sell that. Pushed hard in some of the urban areas is also the BEV, the battery electric vehicle, which is lithium heavy.

Of course, we don’t lose out entirely because there is also manganese there. At the same time, it would be great if the platinum side could really be pushed. We see that it is being pushed in the heavier side with busses, trains, trams and planes, but it needs a lot of advocacy. We know that Anglo American Platinum said this week and they flashed statistics up on the screen and reported that the outlook is getting better and better and from the Chinese orders it looks like it will be about 300 000 ounces of platinum.

At last it is starting to firm up, but we also see the need of these platinum producers to get cobalt, because cobalt is also important. At the Anglo American Platinum results presentation they were quizzed on this to know why they are destroying the cobalt in their process. They did say that they are recovering it in the slag, but it would be better to make sure that they have got more of this, because that is another metal in big demand going forward.

Kamwendo: There is an sms from Tony in Bedfordview and Tony I think given what is coming out of the UK it perhaps does warrant a lengthier discussion. Tony says electric cars don’t need platinum, existing cars are platinum recoverable, platinum 10% of South Africa’s exports. What are the implications?

Creamer: The implications are we have got to really push harder. If China actually goes for the fuel cell vehicle you can see it will have a massive influence on the world. The same way it has a massive influence on solar power. Solar power was more expensive than our coal-fired power stations till China got on the scene and started making these panels. Now it is has swung down the cost curve. What are people saying? 4 c a kilowatt hour for your solar power. It is beating our normal conventional power sources. It is important that big players get involved.

Kamwendo: A groundswell of opposition is building up against the controversial Mining Charter and the freeze on mining deals.

Creamer:  There were just calls of get back to the table. We heard it first from Godfrey Oliphant who is the Deputy Minerals Minister and has served under three Minerals Minister and he wasn’t even consulted on the moratorium recently. He didn’t seem to have much consultation on the Mining Charter, saying we can do it better, get back to the table.

We saw Mark Cutifani, the Anglo American CEO say yesterday, get back to the table, we have got to look at this. Even the rising star of mining, Themba Mkhwanazi, with Kumba Iron Ore saying he is very concerned about the reneging by the Minister on the agreement they thought they had with the Chamber and suddenly come with the moratorium, which has caused anguish amongst these unions.

The National Union of Mineworkers have come out stridently and said get rid of this we can’t have it, it is jeopardising 20 000 jobs, we have got to get back to the table. So that is another voice saying we have got to get back to the table and come up with something better with this Mining Charter, because it just seems to be outside of the reach of any mining jurisdiction. Cutifani said no mining jurisdiction could look at this, it is confused and confusing, so lets talk.

Kamwendo: Mining companies are preparing to pay out billions of rands to mineworkers who contracted lung diseases.

Creamer: This lung disease, I can remember my dad saying to me how the people used to walk past his old mine house on the way to work coughing their lungs out. These were the Cornish miners, which they hired from Cornwall which they called cousin Jacks.

They used to be dying in front of him with tysis they never lived long. Of course, that silicosis that silica in the ore has been getting into people’s lungs for centuries, so what these six companies have got together now and said they need to try and be proactive and payout people who have suffered from this ahead of any court case. Get a settlement ahead of the court case, going back to 1965.

Two of them have already put in R1.7-billion saying this is available now for fair claiming against your illness. It is building up, because the date for the court case is round about March next year and they are hoping that by the end of the year they can settle as many people as they can, because they are looking at 100 000 people.

Kamwendo: You know Martin, my grandfather passed away in 1991, never smoked a day in his live, died of lung cancer and he worked in the mine. Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.