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Rand Refinery to run Amplats platinum manufacturing scheme

24th February 2014

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Platinum mining major Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) has appointed Rand Refinery to administer its platinum metal financing scheme that provides access to affordable metal financing for local manufacturers.

The Germiston-based refinery takes over the administration of Amplats’ platinum metal financing scheme from Johnson Matthey, which has given notice of no longer being able to offer the scheme from June 30.

Amplats, which introduced the platinum metal financing scheme in 2006, told Mining Weekly Online in November that its commercial strategy had been revised under the leadership of executive marketing head Andrew Hinkly.

The revised strategy, it said, included diversifying its customer portfolio and replacing general market development funding with project-focused specific funding.

Through the platinum metal financing scheme, Amplats is investing in a portfolio of activities to support market development and beneficiation, including supporting local jewellery training institutions and manufacturers.

The appointment of Rand Refinery is seen as a move to ensure continuity of platinum supply to the South African jewellery industry and also as a way of minimising any impact as a result of Johnson Matthey’s withdrawal.

Amplats described the Rand Refinery as an organisation with a well-developed precious metals value-chain that put strong emphasis on local beneficiation, which positioned it well to support the principles of the financing scheme.

The company promised the release of more detailed information by Rand Refinery and itself in due course.

Until June 30, platinum metal would continue to be available to local manufacturers from Johnson Matthey for cash, or until the new arrangement with Rand Refinery came into effect, whichever was earlier.

Amplats took the opportunity to reiterate its commitment to the support of South Africa’s platinum jewellery industry and the enabling of greater opportunities for domestic jewellers to compete in both local and international markets.

Funding under Amplats’ revised strategy included specific co-investment with value chain partners, direct investment in high-growth platinum group metal (PGM) segments and a focus on sustainable demand.

Funding of jewellery market development was continuing through the Platinum Guild International while fuel-cell product development and the commercialisation of PGM technology was underpinned by the Anglo American Platinum PGM Development Fund.

Initiatives were under way into new and emerging sectors of future demand to ensure economic growth and the creation of new South African jobs.

These initiatives ranged from university research projects at five universities, to commercialising new products such as fuel-cell locomotives and dozers for use in mines.

A fuel-cell based off-grid electrification solution for rural communities had also been developed and updates on development would be communicated in the same way for other relevant aspects of Amplats' business.

Hinkly said during question time at the Amplats results presentation in February 2013 that workers retrenched from the company’s platinum mines would be considered for re-employment on the many beneficiation projects that the company had been working on for many years.

“For example, we have an exciting project in the fuel-cell area, which we would anticipate could create up to 100 jobs in the near term and potentially several thousand over the five-year period. This is a high-growth sector that we continue to invest in,” Hinkly added at the presentation attended by Mining Weekly Online.

HYDROGEN SOUTH AFRICA

More news on the fuel-cell front is that there is a smart new building at the top of the University of Cape Town’s upper campus that forms the backdrop to the Hydrogen South Africa (HySA) Catalysis Centre of Competence, part of the government’s programme in hydrogen and fuel cells.

“When the fuel cell technology industry takes off, it's going to be a multibillion-dollar market," HySA Catalysis Centre of Competence director Dr Olaf Conrad said in a media release sent to Mining Weekly Online.

The University of Cape Town Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment and Mintek, the national research and development organisation for mineral processing, co-host HySA, which wants to capture 25% of the global fuel-cell and hydrogen catalyst market by 2020.

While many countries and academic programmes have their eye on capitalising on this market, they do not have the advantage that South Africa of hosting the lion's share of global PGMs.

Fuel cells, which provide environmentally clean and extremely reliable power that can be used in many ways, are currently being implemented in the automotive industry by Toyota and Hyundai to produce commercial vehicles, but the cost for these models is still quite high and needs to come down.

Other current applications that are being looked at include providing power and back-up power for the telecommunication industry, for cellphone operators.

Dr Conrad said that it was imperative that South Africa was ready to enter the market at the same time as the rest of the world, which was why the government had launched its 15-year plan in 2008.

Amplats CFO Bongani Nqwababa told Mining Weekly Online during his spell as acting CEO that the company intended moving strongly into an intense phase of market development.

“It’s all about market development and looking at better opportunities for the metal, increasing the demand and diversifying the geographies in which it is used,” he said, adding that there had been an over-reliance on demand from Europe, which pointed to the need for the geographical diversification of demand.

Amplats has been working with a US company to develop the fuel-cell market.

Hydrogen fuel cells using platinum catalysts are seen as efficient, versatile and scaleable and represent a proven technology that ensures clean, reliable and cost-effective power.

Although the markets for the minor PGMs like ruthenium and iridium are small, they tend to be financially liquid and have major lifestyle implications in laptop computers, iPads and spark plugs.

Iridium’s unique selling points are its high corrosion resistance and high melting point, which is particularly critical in crucibles, with some 200 000 t of South African platinum ore having to be extracted and processed to supply one crucible set.

The light-emitting diode (LED) industry had invested heavily in iridium crucibles, which were used for the growing of crystals for a range of high-technology applications, including sapphire for light-emitting diodes (LEDs), lithium materials, acoustic wave filters in mobile phones and components in medical scanners.

This was the consequence of a rapid technology shift in which LED television sets with backlighting accounted for three-quarters of the television market.

Ruthenium plays a role in electronic chip resisters, coating, specialised alloys, speciality machine tools and the aerospace industry, and can take much of the credit for the 100-fold increase in computer storage capacity that has taken place in a single decade.

Virtually all the ruthenium is South Africa-sourced, dictated largely by the volume of platinum mined.

A new application for iridium is as a light emitter in organic LEDs known as OLEDs. Some smartphones have OLED displays, which are crisper and quicker and which consume less electricity.

The real prize will be the television market, which will require a far larger OLED and considerably more iridium.

But the major use is still in the traditional autocatalysis market, where new upcoming vehicle emission standards in Europe and China are poised to boost demand for platinum.

Euro six emission standards will be introduced in Europe for heavy-duty vehicles and then passenger cars in 2014, when tighter emission levels will be implemented in China for diesel vehicles.

China, Thailand and Russia are at the Euro Four level while Euro Seven is already on the drawing board in Europe, providing significant market scope.

The new Euro six standard substantially tightens the nitrogen oxide (NOx) limits for diesel vehicles, forcing the application of new catalysts on diesel cars.

While some of these catalysts will be base-metal catalysts, a large proportion will be platinum- and rhodium-based catalysts to control the NOx output, “and this is certainly going to make a big difference to platinum demand in 2014”.

Johnson Matthey’s swansong platinum metals report in November brought to a close a long era of ongoing supply of PGMs information to the South African media and there have been no announcements on whether this information gap will be filled for the promotion of platinum, an important national patrimony.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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