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South African platinum group metals (PGM) companies have been invited to become part of a programme that is targeting an initial 1.7-million-ounce increase demand for palladium, a platinum group metal (PGM) that research is showing has a long list of potential new applications.

In making this invitation at the PGM Industry Day in Johannesburg, major palladium producer Nornickel reported that is on the verge of opening a large globally collaborative palladium laboratory, as part of its new 100-patent Centre for Palladium Technologies that is striving to change how the world sees palladium.

Since its launch, the centre has built a portfolio of 25 products and by 2030, the portfolio is expected to advance beyond 100 projects, generating an additional 1.7-million-ounce annual palladium demand.

"We aim to share expertise and collaborate with those who, like us, see palladium as a metal of the future," Centre for Palladium Technologies head Dmitry Izotov stated during a PGM Day panel discussion covered by Mining Weekly.

The visit to South Africa was part of a global roadshow aimed at combining research and business efforts can drive sustainable development.

From a chemical perspective, PGMs complement each other in many applications and research shows that palladium alloyed with other PGMs frequently outperforms the efficiency and durability of individual PGMs.

Potential new palladium applications highlighted in Johannesburg include:

Using a layer of palladium to minimise the light loss of solar panels;

Upgrading hydrogen fuel cell performance;

Lowering green hydrogen production costs;

Replacing iridium with palladium in organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays; and

Deploying palladium-based alloys to reduce conductive component expenses in electronics.

The goal of the Johannesburg event was to initiate dialogue with potential partners across the continent: research institutions, industrial firms, and tech startups.

Long-term collaboration with scientists, manufacturers, and end-users to accelerate the adoption of advanced technologies and products is envisaged.

"Our goal is to become a technological partner for producers of PGM-based products. We focus on identifying applications where palladium delivers a strong competitive edge, bringing together leading scientific teams to develop prototypes, conducting large-scale industrial trials, optimising the product, and transferring the technology to manufacturers. This approach allows us to create more efficient materials and open up new markets for palladium applications," Izotov explained.

Since its launch, the centre has built a portfolio of 25 products. By 2030, the portfolio is expected to exceed 100 projects, generating an additional annual demand of 40-50 tonnes of palladium.

A palladium layer in silicon solar cells is expected to provide a 2%-plus efficiency uplift owing to reduced light reflection and absorption compared with silver enhanced photon capture. There is also said to be less microcrack propensity.

Palladium-platinum alloy is said to provide 10%-plus optimisation in hydrogen fuel cell catalysis and proton exchange membrane (PEM) plus a PEM replacement cost reduction of 10% to 25%.

When it comes to OLED displays, palladium use is said to reduce costs by 50% to 70% and increase the lifespan of blue OLEDs by 50%.

At the outset in 2021, Izotov explained that there were no artificial intelligence solutions but by end of 2024, 80% of equipment was operated by computer vision algorithms.

The company's biggest mining mill is operating automatically on machine learning.

"The operator is not involved," he reported, and the algorithm is learns from information "like every 15 minutes, and that's really a big thing for us."

The improved economic effect on ...

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After listening to Heraeus Precious Metals trading head Dominik Sperzel placing ruthenium on a new high pedestal and describing this low-profile PGM as "my personal favourite", Platinum Group Metals (PGM) Industry Day chairperson Bernard Swanepoel remarked that he'd never met a person who speaks passionately about ruthenium but that, "We love it".

Fortunately, South Africa hosts the world's largest endowment of this PGM, a rare silvery-white hard transition metal that forms part the platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium and osmium family of magical metals.

Following its latest PGM Day spotlighting, it's unlikely that ruthenium will be able to continue to hide its light under a bushel.

When questioned by PwC energy, utilities and resources leader Andries Rossouw on the things that have the potential to expand the PGM, a study entitled 'Unlocking Hydrogen Transportation' was brought to the fore. This study was authored by Sperzel, Dr Konrad Krois, as well as Dr Jenny Watts and Henk de Hoop, of the Sibanye-Stillwater-linked SFA.

"We've done a nice paper on ruthenium's use in hydrogen's transportation in particular," Sperzel enthused.

While ruthenium is not consuming a lot of ounces "at the moment", the authors believe it has a "bright future" in not only hydrogen, but also green chemistry and electronics.

In green chemistry, Sperzel noted: "We already see applications, where we go away from the classical fossil feedstocks into the greener feedstocks, could be wood biomass, could be something else that helps the system overall run on these different feedstocks, and then third, electronics.

"It's a very, very versatile metal. It's very, very tricky, to deal with in certain instances, but with the spike in demand for semiconductors, with the spike driven by artificial intelligence applications, we believe that these high-end applications need high-end input materials," Sperzel added during a panel discussion covered by Mining Weekly.

A big contribution is the facilitation of hydrogen's transportation through green ammonia cracking, about which the Ammonia Energy Association is regularly reporting final investment decision-making, the latest being the CF-JERA-Mitsui mega-project in Louisiana, US, plus the near-tripling of the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.

Meanwhile, ruthenium is solidifying its status as an indispensable catalyst in ammonia cracking amid its enabling of lower temperature reactions and high conversion, which leads to energy savings and longer catalyst lifespans.

This is positioning ruthenium as a strong hydrogen economy contender, catering to the demand from fuel cell technology, chemical manufacturing, and metal processing industries, the authors of the White Paper report.

Total ruthenium demand is estimated at around 800 000 oz/y with supply at around 955 000 oz/y, which leaves around 150 000 oz of ruthenium metal for the emerging hydrogen economy.

Despite a challenging environment for clean hydrogen, the Hydrogen Council finds that the effective implementation of already embedded policies could support the business case for the uptake of eight-million tons a year of clean hydrogen across the EU, the US and East Asia by 2030.

The council's 'Closing the Cost Gap' report, developed with the analytical support of McKinsey, highlights that this can be achieved by the transposition of the EU Renewable Energy Directive at EU country level, rollout of Japan's Contracts for Difference mechanism, implementation of South Korea's Clean Hydrogen Portfolio Standard, and realisation of hydrogen-related sections of the US Inflation Reduction Act, resulting in either reducing the production cost of clean hydrogen and its derivatives or mandating or incentivising their use.

To further ...

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Minerals Council South Africa has been scoring big on the transformation front, going well beyond compliance, and hopes are now high that the upcoming Minerals and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA) Amendment Bill will create a legislative context to allow mining to shift from potential to performance.

This was made clear on Wednesday, April 9, by Minerals Council CEO Mzila Mthenjane, senior executive, public affairs and transformation Tebello Chabana, chief economist Hugo Pienaar, and senior policy analyst, public affairs and transformation Fundiswa Ndaba in the first of what are expected to be many more roundtable media briefings.

"The mining industry has made the significant progress in transformation, despite the headwinds and the constraints caused by years of regulatory and policy uncertainty, the slow processes of approving prospecting and mining rights, hence hampering the growth of the industry, operational constraints caused by the irregular and increasing cost of electricity and logistics, which at the best of times, have not been reliable, both in terms of rail and ports," Mthenjane pointed out.

"From a legislative perspective, we're expecting the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources to gazette its MPRDA Amendment Bill in due course, and from our perspective, we do expect a sensible, investor friendly change to the MPRDA that addresses negative sentiment towards South Africa's mining and prospecting sectors.

"It's a Bill which we hope will encourage and support investment, firstly in exploration, and then providing for a shift in sentiment that results in continuing mine development from the exploration, as well as continued investment in current mines, which continue to contribute and support the country through contribution to the fiscus.

"Combined, we see this growing the industry, and hence, by extension, will create more employment, create more opportunities for new entrants and entrepreneurs and mining industrialists.

"Let's not forget that miners are also industrialists, and I think, also contributing to even greater transformation than what we have achieved in the past and benefiting communities and the entire country.

"I do believe that the industry can do so much more than it is currently, and so the legislative context for mining has to enable a shift, and the industry needs to shift from potential to performance," Mthenjane added.

REGULAR MEDIA ROUNDTABLES

Going forward, Minerals Council South Africa intends holding regular media roundtable briefings "to get to understand what's going on in the mining industry", communications head Allan Seccombe stated.

"I think that's going to be a key thing for us, to bring media stakeholders along with us on our journey as we as we strive for growth, safety, employment, all the good things that we all want for our country and certainly our mining industry.

The focus first of the first roundtable briefing was on transformation, which the council described as "a critical aspect of our industry, particularly as we address our legacy with the industry looking at a lot of things the mining industry was historically known for and trying to rectify that", added Seccombe.

It's been a journey since the advent of democracy, the publication of the Mining Charter "and I think the mining industry has continued to prioritise socioeconomic transformation over that period", Mthenjane explained.

"You'll all be familiar, with the structure of the Mining Charter, which is really consistent with several other industry charters, including, amongst other things, black ownership, employment, equity, preferential procurement, enterprise and supply development, skills development, as well as social economic development," added Mthenjane.

Specific to the...

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Three new green hydrogen qualifications are being registered with the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations to enable South Africa to seize the platinum group metals (PGMs)-linked green hydrogen opportunity as its green shoots turn into roots at a time when the disrupted world is in eager need of a promising new planet-friendly economic direction.

Last month, the emerging green hydrogen fuel cell economy received a R90-billion stimulus opportunity from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who urged South Africa while in Cape Town to get going on green hydrogen.

Then, at last week's PGM Industry Day in Johannesburg, Anglo American reported that South Africa's rejigged Hydrogen Corridor has been short-listed for Just Energy Transition Investment Programme funding.

Emerging simultaneously are enabling new green hydrogen qualifications, with South Africa's Chemical Industries Education & Training Authority (CHIETA) working with sister Setas such as the Mining Qualifications Authority (MQA) and the Transport Education and Training Authority (TETA) on the green resource that has the strong potential to fundamentally transform the global economy and to reindustrialise South Africa.

"Green hydrogen's becoming the new gold," CHIETA CEO Yershen Pillay remarked to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

CHIETA data suggests that the overall employment need embraces about 178 key skills and competencies, with the 17 that CHIETA needs to develop covering gas engineers, hydrogen systems engineers, hydrogen technicians.

Being registered by CHIETA with the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations are three new qualifications .

The first is that of a green hydrogen technology practitioner. This will ensure that you have the skill on site to manage your green hydrogen technologies, such as your electrolyser technologies.

The second is that of a green hydrogen production practitioner. We've been working with some of our companies such as Sasol, Afrox, Air Products, Rheinmetall, and many of them require some form of production expertise to produce the green hydrogen on site.

The third qualification is that of a green hydrogen storage and fuel transporter, because transporting hydrogen is very dangerous. It's a gas that is highly explosive, especially at high temperatures. You need certain safety standards and will have to be qualified to transport and store green hydrogen.

"These are the three qualifications that we are contributing as the chemical Seta to ensure that we have an adequate skills infrastructure to seize the green hydrogen opportunity as a country," Pillay explained.

"Our entire development process is informed by our stakeholders. The companies themselves, the training providers, all approached us as CHIETA, and they said to us that this is where the demand lies. We need pipe fitters, for example, on site and they need to be adequately trained.

"What we've been able to do is to work with closely with likes of Sasol, Air Products and various other companies like Rheinmetall, who say they will be able to absorb these skills.

"We have plans to implement the first-of-its-kind Green Hydrogen Centre of Specialisation. This centre of specialisation is going to be in collaboration with our higher education institution, such a universities, as well as our TVET colleges.

"We are collaborating with some of our sister Setas, the Mining Qualifications Authority, as we know, there are quite a few developments in the mining space, with country companies like Anglo American venturing into green hydrogen trucks, etcetera. and then we've collaborating with and TETA on the transport side.

"Ninety-five per cent of the green hydrogen economy is transport orientated, so witho...

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - New York- and Toronto-listed gold and copper mining company Barrick is now advancing its portfolio of growth projects to support a planned 30% growth in gold equivalent ounces by the end of the decade.

Barrick delivered on the goals it set for 2024, meeting its gold and copper production guidance and maintaining its record of reserve replacement while adding substantially to its resource base, Barrick chairperson John Thornton states in the company's 2025 Information Circular.

"We improved our financial performance, despite higher costs, with an increase in net earnings of 69% - the highest in a decade - operating cash flow growth of 20%, and a doubling of free cash flow relative to 2023," Thornton notes in a release to Mining Weekly.

At the same time, a portfolio to achieve sustainable production and profitable growth was developed.

"We continued to ramp up Pueblo Viejo, started prefeasibility work at Fourmile, and restarted the Porgera mining operation.

"We completed feasibility studies for Reko Diq, one of the world's largest undeveloped copper/gold deposits, and the Lumwana Expansion project, which will become one of the world's largest copper mines," Thornton reports.

Both projects will support Barrick's goal of organically growing production volumes, particularly in copper, and as such the company is proposing to change its name from Barrick Gold Corporation to Barrick Mining Corporation, to reflect the company's changing production profile.

Despite rising metal prices, mining equities have underperformed, with Barrick no exception. "We viewed our equity as undervalued and consequently repurchased $498-million of shares in 2024 and we will continue to pursue share buybacks whenever we believe our shares are trading below their intrinsic value.

"We have an industry-leading balance sheet, substantial liquidity and a global portfolio of Tier 1 assets. These qualities, along with our fully funded pipeline of organic growth projects, put us on track to grow the company and increase per-share returns over the long term," Thornton highlights.

Also in the Information Circular, lead director Brett Harvey says that board renewal remained a priority in 2024, enhancing Barrick's global business expertise to achieve representation that reflects the people and regions integral to its operations.

"During the year, we conducted a rigorous and structured selection process to identify potential board candidates, and we're pleased to nominate Ben van Beurden and Pekka Vauramo for election at this year's annual and special meeting. At the same time, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Christopher Coleman and Andy Quinn, who will retire from the board," Harvey adds.

The board also appointed new chairs for its key committees. They are Isela Costantini for the compensation committee, Loreta Silva for the audit and risk committee, and Brian Greenspun for the environmental, social, governance and nominating committees.

Shareholder attendance at this year's annual and special meeting on May 6 will be by way of live webcast.

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South Africa's rejigged green hydrogen corridor project, Project Rhynbow, has been shortlisted for just energy transition (JET) funding, this week's Platinum Group Metals (PGM) Industry Day audience heard on Thursday.

"It's a great achievement for us as South Africa, to be able to get to this point, and the best achievement will be when tyres hit the road," Anglo American principal market development Fahmida Smith outlined during a PGM Industry Day panel discussion covered by Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The anticipated timeline for vehicles on the road is 18 to 24 months post funding of the projects.

Project Rhynbow is a collaboration between Anglo American Platinum, Bambili Energy, Sasol, and Total Energies with Accenture as secretariat and is focused on creating a local hydrogen economy focused on mobility and stationary applications.

Chaired by mining luminary Bernard Swanepoel, the panel discussion was led by PwC Africa energy, utilities and resources leader Andries Rossouw, and the other members were World Platinum Investment Council director of research Edward Sterck, Heraeus Precious Metals head of trading Dominik Sperzel, Platinum Guild International Hong Kong CEO Tim Schlick, Nornickel CEO of Palladium Center Dmitry Izotov, and Smith, who explained that the project design allowed for green hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to be added as corridor demand increased.

The project consists of fuel cell electric vehicles and dual fuel vehicles, which both require hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.

The "at scale" or "scalable" project frameworks allow for green hydrogen refuelling infrastructure to be scaled according to utilisation or vehicles that need to be supported.

Being part of the Hydrogen Valley Project developed by the partners and the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, it was awarded strategic integrated project, or SIP, status in October 2023.

Having been shortlisted for JET funding, it will now undergo a detailed due diligence process.

The project's current focus was on having infrastructure that was sufficient for the number of vehicles needed on the road, "for what we refer to as milk runs, for example", Smith remarked.

"One of the things that could change is the pace at which the hydrogen economy takes off.

"Clearly, that's been slower than we have been anticipating, and it's probably just worth considering why.

"I think the main thing comes down to putting the horse in front of the cart, and that is the production of green hydrogen at scale, at a low enough levelised cost of hydrogen, with the infrastructure in place to distribute that hydrogen and get it to end-users, making it available and making for them these decisions, for example, a fuel cell electric vehicle.

"That requires big subsidies. Now we've known about those numbers for a while, but the pace at which those subsidies have flowed has been much slower than we had anticipated, and they are beginning to come now," Sterck pointed out.

Products that Heraeus of Germany is supplying go beyond electrolysis, the PGM-based process from which hydrogen is generated, into purification, fuel cells, which turn hydrogen back into green electricity, and into the transport of hydrogen, the latter being very important owing to hydrogen likely being produced in regions where it will most likely not be totally domestically consumed, such as the outlook in South Africa.

"I can say this as a German, we're a big energy importing country ultimately, and the hydrogen has to come to Germany somehow, and Japan, Korea, these countries have similar problems that we do have.

"And we, for example, believe in chemical binders like green ammonia. We have done a nice paper on ruthenium use in hydrogen transportat...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discusses South Africa reclaiming its position in the global mining industry by restoring trust; the new sun-tracking system that is attracting attention; Plug Power stressing the importance of platinum-based proton exchange membrane technology

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In a Zoom video interview with Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly, Plug Power President and CEO Andy Marsh on Wednesday pointed out that platinum-based proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology is at the heart of everything that this Nasdaq-listed company does.

Plug is a prime mover in US' platinum-catalysed green hydrogen and fuel cell economy and the adoption by US business of this planet-friendly way of doing things is because it pays them to do so.

The company built and operates the US' largest liquid green hydrogen plant, a 15 t a day liquid hydrogen plant that uses 40 MW of Plug's platinum-and iridium catalysed electrolysers.

More than 80 000 forklift trucks are powered by the 250 hydrogen fuelling stations it has built.

Between Walmart and Amazon, there are about 150 sites that use Plug's PEM technology to operate around the clock.

With the help of Plug's technology, these companies talk about moving 8% to 10% more pallets an hour, while also being users of clean energy.

"Where you need fast start-up, where you need to be able to work in cold environments, where you can really change the power level instantaneously, PEM is the answer," Marsh highlighted.

Plug has a $1.66-billion loan contract with the US Department of Energy (DOE) to build a huge hydrogen plant in Texas. The DOE has been actively involved in research and development of green hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, recognising their potential to decarbonise various sectors and contribute to a cleaner energy future.

The DOE's hydrogen and fuel cell technologies office has been focused on developing technologies that can produce hydrogen at $2/kg by 2026 and $1/kg by 2031 via net-zero-carbon pathways, in support of the Hydrogen Energy Earthshot goal of reducing the cost of hydrogen by 80% to $1 per 1 kilogram in 1 decade.

This has been under way against the backdrop of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which was introduced to save the universe from the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change.

Stimulated has been heavy investment in clean energy, climate action, and environmental justice, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning to an environmentally protective economy.

The IRA legislation that former President Joe Biden signed into law in August 2022 has the capacity to enable $3-trillion in climate investments in the 2022-2032 period and $11-trillion in overall infrastructure investments by 2050.

Key ingredients to the success if all this are platinum group metals, which South Africa hosts in the greatest abundance.

However, reverberations are being caused by Wednesday's US April 2 'Liberation Day' announcement that a 30% tariff regime will be imposed on South Africa, while also imposing a 10% base tariff, alongside higher individual tariffs for specific countries, including 20% for the EU, 24% for Japan, 26% for India, and 34% for China.

"I've spent some time with the DOE. I've spent some time with many Republican Congress folks. Now, there's certainly no guarantee that many of the incentives that were put in place to grow the green hydrogen industry will continue, but I think it's likely they will.

"There's over 20 members of the House who are Republicans who asked the President and asked the Speaker not to change the provisions of the IRA when it comes to hydrogen.

"It's an industry that's strongly supported by the oil and gas industry. There are some big projects, especially in places like Texas, including our own 45 ton liquid plant, that are still on the drawing board.

"There will be hydrogen hubs in the United States. It probably isn't happening as fast as people hoped three or four years ago, but we really do believe it's going to continue," said Marsh.

Augmenting its US gr...

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If South Africa wants to reclaim its position in the global mining industry, half-measures just won't cut it. The Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) needs to go beyond admitting administrative failure and must actively restore trust, says mining luminary Paul Miller, the CEO of AmaranthCX.

"This means having a fully transparent cadastre, open-access geological data, strict enforcement of exploration obligations, and limit the discretion exercised by political activists masquerading as public officials.

"Investor confidence depends on an efficient, predictable and fair system, not a bureaucracy manipulated for personal and political interests. Politicians must make policy, and officials must implement that policy in an even-handed way.

"South Africa's mining decline was not inevitable, it was a choice. For two decades, the government chose secrecy over transparency, bureaucracy over efficiency, and political favouritism over competence. It wasted its geological wealth through negligence, mismanagement, and sheer administrative failure," Miller points out.

Now, South Africa faces the uncomfortable truth of the rest of the world having possibly moved on.

"The question is no longer whether South Africa can fix its mining sector; the question is whether investors will ever trust it again," cautions Miller, who does point out, however, that some investors are still persisting, particularly in copper in the Northern Cape, and also in lithium, uranium, rare earths and mineral sands.

But in the main, the mining sector being the economic flywheel it once was has past, with major mining companies focusing largely on 'stay-in-business' and sustaining capital investments, rather than greenfield projects.

South Africa was once the undisputed leader in African mining. It had the geology, the skills, and the infrastructure to dominate the continent for generations.

Yet today, its share of Africa's exploration budget, a forward-looking indicator of future success, has fallen from 35% two decades ago to about 7% today.

Meanwhile, countries with fewer resources but better governance - like Namibia, Botswana, Côte d'Ivoire and even Malawi - are attracting investment.

'WANTS' OUTLINED

At the Investing in African Mining Indaba in February, Minerals Council South Africa CEO Mzila Mthenjane outlined what is wanted for the South African mining industry to be able to play a strong and competitive game "and win for the nation of Mzansi".

"We want a regulatory environment that encourages local and foreign investment into our prospecting sector, which for the past four years has attracted less than 1% of global exploration spending.

"With a vibrant exploration portfolio, we see an enduring, sustainable mining industry that changes the fate of many people, lifting them from continued unemployment, poverty and hunger to dignity and pride because of the wealth that mining can create," Mthenjane pointed out.

"We want provisions for exploration companies in the DMPR's review of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act (MPRDA), that are fit for purpose for prospecting, junior, midtier and major mining companies, encouraging investment through business-friendly laws.

"We want the expected and timely introduction of a modern, transparent mining cadastre that will bring South Africa level with other mining jurisdictions in terms of efficiency of licensing to urgently manage the backlog of unprocessed prospecting and mining right applications, and to speedily process and issue new applications without contestation and court cases, effectively removing perceptions of malfeasance.

"An investment-friendly exploration environment will encourage the creation of prospecting funds from the private sector, broadening the op...

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Canada-headquartered Lucara Diamonds has terminated its engineering, procurement, and construction management contract with JDS Energy & Mining (JDS), effective March 31, as it transitions to owner-managed operations at the Karowe underground expansion project (UGP) in Botswana.

Announcing the shift on Monday, Lucara stated that it had entered into a master service agreement (MSA) with JDS to complete specific engineering components while all site-based contracts and activities move under its direct oversight.

The company expects the transition to enhance cost control, improve operational efficiency, and provide greater flexibility in decision-making. By taking direct management of critical project milestones, Lucara aims to leverage its in-house expertise to advance the UGP more effectively.

"The strategic shift in project management will allow us to better leverage our team's deep understanding of the Karowe mine and its unique characteristics. By taking direct control of site-based activities, we are positioning ourselves to respond more rapidly to project needs and challenges," said Lucara president and CEO William Lamb.

Lucara acknowledged JDS's contributions and said it looked forward to the firm's continued involvement under the MSA in specific engineering aspects.

The UGP is a key project for Lucara, aimed at extending the life of the Karowe mine. The project has made significant progress, with the production shaft now exceeding 720 m in depth and the ventilation shaft surpassing 680 m.

Further advancements have been made on the production man and materials winder building, while most of the required surface infrastructure, including bulk air coolers, is already in place.