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Major global future demand for South African platinum – Friedland

Ivanhoe Capital Corporation chairperson Robert Friedland

Ivanhoe Capital Corporation chairperson Robert Friedland

Photo by Duane Daws

5th February 2014

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

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CAPE TOWN (miningweekly.com) – The future of the world is urbanisation and South Africa is uniquely placed to supply the major volume of the platinum metals that the world will need in large quantities to clean its air.

“Platinum metals equal healthier air,” Ivanhoe Capital Corporation chairperson Robert Friedland told the Investing in African Mining Indaba on Wednesday in his keynote address.

Ivanhoe has a stated ambition of making its Flatreef project, at Mokopane, in Limpopo province, on the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex, a model twenty-first-century operation.

“Seventy-five per cent of global platinum is here in South Africa and, as this world shrinks, what’s happening in the air in Beijing, Shanghai and Delhi takes us directly to Limpopo,” Friedland said.

The founder and largest shareholder of Ivanhoe Mines, which applied for a right to mine the Platreef ten months ago, flashed up on to the big screen pictures of brown Shanghai skies and spoke of the growing imperative for clear urban skies, which would drive substantial demand for platinum metals going forward.

China, which expects to have 400-million cars in 2030, is among many countries taking steps to clean the air, with the large Beijing in the process of imposing European-type emission standards on petrol-powered vehicles in the city.

Friedland said that South Africa was uniquely placed to play a significant role in what was now universally acknowledged as the upcoming fuel-cell era.

The 30 g of platinum metals that a fuel cell needs for even a small compact car is far more than the mere 0.15 oz of palladium for a petrol engine and 0.15 oz of platinum for a diesel engine.

In the audience at the Mining Indaba were representatives of his Japanese partner companies and co-investors in his South African platinum project, which is expected to be given the go-ahead as the first batch of mass-market hydrogen fuel-cell cars are launched by a range of vehicle manufacturers including Hyundai, Toyota, Honda, Ford and Chrysler.

Fuel-cell-powered production sedans will be able to travel 700 km on a full tank of hydrogen, getting away from the battery drawback of inadequate range.

Fuel cells produce no emissions whatsoever, just water vapour, and provide heat for car interiors, an improvement on electric cars where drawing heat drains the battery.

The Japanese, through Itochu and Jogmec, have bought 10% of the Ivanhoe platinum project for $300-million and are leading the push to the use of platinum metals in fuel-cell cars, power generation and clean industry.

“If we can find a better, sustainable way of doing things, we can ignore the controversies of the moment. In a year from now, the election in South Africa will be behind us and we’ll be moving forward to developing and mining.

“If we can attract capital to this country, we’ll uplift the people and provide a good example of success. We did it in Alaska, we did it in the Gobi and we can do it in the Limpopo,” Friedland added.

While a typical drill hole at Ivanhoe’s South African project indicates 24-m-thick platinum, a recent hole showed 90 m thickness, the height of a 30-storey building.

Initial production of 500 000 oz of platinum metals a year is planned, rising to one-million ounces a year in the long term.

Preparation is reportedly under way to sink the first shaft to a depth of 800 m at a cost of $81-million.

The project is situated 180 km from Eskom’s 4 000 MW Medupi power station project and water will be sourced from the Flag Boshielo dam.

The company intends stimulating the local economy through enterprise development in agriculture, transport and servicing and is embracing the concept of beneficiation of platinum metals into marketable products.

Two University of Limpopo professors have been introduced to the Goodman School of Mines at Laurentian University, in Canada, to enhance the education and training prospects of Limpopo youth for employment in the mining sector.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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