Platinum mining companies are right to put much effort into marketing platinum group metals, which have the potential to play far-reaching industrial and investment roles in the modern world.

While on the one hand platinum is opening the way for a clean, modern energy future, on the other hand it is being made more accessible as an investment product.

A German start-up is paving the way for its greater use in transport; local development is witnessing it catalyse electricity generation in production environments and efforts are being made globally to optimise its investment value.

The World Platinum Investment Council has tied up with Swiss refiner Valcambi to improve the accessibility of platinum coins and bars (also see page 18 of this edition of Mining Weekly) while the massive BMW vehicle brand is singing the praises of fuel cell cars.

Thomson Reuters GFMS reports on page 7 of this edition of Mining Weekly that platinum prices have emerged from their straightjacket and that the palladium deficit is deepening.

All this is excellent news for platinum and a reminder that platinum group metals as a whole have the potential to play a significant role in the modern world.

In South Africa, the government is intent on creating incentives for mines to derive greater benefit from investing in platinum-using fuel cell technology and South Africa’s telecommunications industry has for some time now been replacing its diesel generators with fuel cells for back-up power.

Last Friday, those attending the 2016 Oxford Platinum Lectures in the UK heard a plea for mining companies to close lossmaking platinum production, make better use of capital, impose rigid cost control and mimic the gold-mining industry by consolidating mine ownership.

Meanwhile, local research centres are placing South Africa in pole position to seize the opportunities offered by a future hydrogen-age, catalysed by platinum.

South Africa’s State-backed HySA has secured many collaborative agreements with leaders in hydrogen and fuel cell technology in several countries and under scrutiny with the help of Japan is the building of a high-temperature solar demonstration plant for local hydrogen.

As was stated at the United Nations climate change convention’s 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) in Durban in 2011, the window of opportunity is "wide open" for South Africa to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and simultaneously obtain a source of clean zero-emission power, with platinum at its heart.

The UK’s Carbon Trust on fuel cells development in South Africa were quoted at COP 17 as calculating that, with the appropriate levels of deployment of investment in manufacturing, installation and maintenance activities, fuel cells produced locally could simultaneously meet energy security challenges and provide rural communities with energy, without any major expansion to the national electricity grid.

Anxiously awaited is the fuel cell and hydrogen roadmap that the government is reportedly drawing up.

Japan already has one, which highlights the Asian country’s aspiration to be a carbon neutral hydrogen fuel society by 2040.

The Department of Trade and Industry needs to confirm when and where the platinum-based special economic zone will be built.

Once all that is in place, there would also be a clear potential for the export of knowledge and products to the global market.