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Emerging copper producer Copper 360 has shipped copper concentrate from South Africa's Northern Cape province for the first time in 21 years.

South Africa's only listed pure copper producer, which delivered record concentrate grades during plant commissioning, is performing way ahead of expectation as a producer of copper concentrate, as well as being the Northern Cape's only producer of copper cathode.

"We salute the tenacity and spirit of the people of Namaqualand who support us tremendously and the drive and passion of our team," said Copper 360 CEO Jan Nelson, who spoke to Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The company is building up from a very low base to one that will be generating over R100-million in monthly revenue.

Nama Copper, the first concentrate plant of this Johannesburg Stock Exchange's AltX-listed company, has generated a profit within six weeks.

The second concentrate plant, the MPF 1 plant, is on track to come on line in two months.

Two months ago, Copper 360's solvent extraction and electrowinning (SX/EW ) broke even.

Meanwhile, achieving 30%-plus grade during commissioning is regarded as remarkable during the five weeks of commissioning, when 70 t of concentrate was the outcome - 76% more than the targeted 40 t.

Based on this performance, the plant is forecast to produce more than 1 000 t of concentrate a month within three months, two months ahead of planned production.

The target capacity of the second concentrate plant, which is due to start production at the end of July, is 1 400 concentrate tonnes a month.

In addition, the copper-cathode producing SX/EW, which delivered a record performance in March by producing 60 t of pure copper metal, is on track to ramp up to 100 t of copper a month within the next quarter.

Mining Weekly: Could this be the far-reaching start of a crucial new copper era for South Africa's Northern Cape, which is so prospective for base metals so crucial to a world that is electrifying at a fast pace?

Nelson: Absolutely. This was one of the biggest copper districts during the 1940s to the 1980s. You had Newmont and Gold Fields mining here. There were shafts sunk 2 000 m deep and a lot of these mines are still open with large orebodies. I certainly think that with this production initiating, this area will definitely be the revival of South Africa as a major copper player.

Is Copper 360's 30%-plus concentrate grade delivery likely to be sustained?

Absolutely. Our test work showed initially that the copper concentrate grades were between 40% and 50%, which is extremely high. On average, companies produce at about 24%. For us to achieve 30% concentrate grades during commissioning is phenomenal because you have quite a lot of problems during commissioning. You don't have consistent feed, your plant is still building up. To have that from the get-go is just fantastic and shows us that 40% to 50% in the future will be easily achievable.

How did Copper 360 manage to exceed its planned copper concentrate production target by a whopping 76%.

Buying a plant that was ready to go obviously played a big role, but it's also due to the fantastic team that we have on the ground. Our people have really put in a considerable effort. We've appointed a new plant manager, as announced, and we have a new operation manager in place, but it's just exceptional teamwork that pulled out all the stops.

What are the new expectations, now, for your recently acquired Nama Copper plant, in view of the way it has been able to streak ahead of targeted performance?

Over the next three months, it will build up to about 1 000 concentrate tonnes. It's going to produce close to 350 t of copper metal, and we'll generate something close to about R50-million to R60-million in revenue. Not only will that plant pay itself back in four months, but the production ramp up is not a problem because we've...

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Copper production increasing by 11% as Quellaveco achieved its highest plant throughput rate in Peru, while Collahuasi and El Soldado in Chile benefitting from higher copper grades were among the first-quarter performance aspects that pleased diversified mining company Anglo American in the three months ending March 31.

"We're driving operational excellence across our assets, focusing on stability and effective cost management as levers to deliver significant value through the cycle," Anglo CE Duncan Wanblad highlighted in a release to Mining Weekly on Tuesday.

"We're progressing through our asset review to optimise value by simplifying and improving the overall quality of the portfolio," he added.

With copper now representing 30% of total production, the business is being set up to deliver and grow into the major demand themes against the backdrop of several organic medium-term copper growth options.

Steelmaking coal production also increased by 7%, owing to the performance at the Aquila longwall and Capcoal opencast operations in Australia, the London- and Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed company stated in the First Quarter Anglo American Production Report.

Anglo diamond mining and marketing company De Beers, the report noted, implemented changes to lower its diamond production for the year by about three-million carats.

This, combined with 7% lower production of 834 000 oz from Anglo's platinum group metals (PGMs) operations resulted in flat production for the group overall when compared with the first three months of 2023. The lower PGMs production reflected expected lower volumes from the Kroondal PGMs mine, which is reported as third-party purchase of concentrate from November 2023, and lower production at the underground Amandelbult PGMs mine in Limpopo.

Iron-ore production was flattened by the planned logistics-linked decrease to 15.1-milion tonnes at South Africa's Kumba Iron Ore offsetting the 4% production rise at Minas-Rio in Brazil.

Full-year diamond production guidance has also been lowered to 26-million carats to 29-million carats, with unit costs revised up to $90/carat.

Realised prices were all down except for diamonds. The biggest realised price fall was 61% for rhodium. Other big realised price falls were for palladium, which was 38% down, nickel, which was 37% down, Minas-Rio iron-ore, which was 38% down, the PGMs basket price, which was 30% down.

PGM METAL IN CONCENTRATE

Anglo's own mined production decreased by 14% to 504 300 oz on the disposal of Kroondal. Excluding Kroondal, production decreased by 6% owing to lower production from Amandelbult and Mototolo. Mogalakwena produced 219 500 oz, which was flat year-on-year.

Production at Amandelbult decreased by 16% to 127 100 oz on lower recoveries and plant equipment breakdowns.

Production at Mototolo fell 10% to 61 900 oz, caused by mining equipment breakdowns and challenging ground conditions as a section of the mine reaches its end of life.

The Unki PGMs mine in Zimbabwe produced 62 800 oz, in line with the same period of last year.

The purchase of concentrate increased by 5% to 329 800 oz, reflecting the transition of Kroondal to a 100% third-party purchase of concentrate arrangement. Normalising the comparative period to include 100% of Kroondal, results in a 10% decrease reflecting lower third-party receipts.

Refined PGM production was flat at 628 000 oz. In the first quarter of every year, refined production is typically at its lowest, due to the annual stock count and planned maintenance at processing assets.

KUMBA IRON ORE

Kumba's quarterly production declined to 9.3-million tonnes, driven by a 12% decrease at Kolomela to 2.7-million tonnes. The operationally stable Sishen iron-ore mine lifted production by 4% to 6.6-million tonnes.

Kumba's iron-ore sales fell 12% to 8.4-million tonnes, primarily as a result of equipment reliability challenges at the Saldanha Bay ...

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Diversified mining company Anglo American is taking steps to help to restore an Amazon rainforest equivalent of which less than 10% remains intact.

The Mata Atlántica carbon forest is located near Anglo's Minas-Rio iron-ore mine, in Brazil.

Anglo intends playing a role in the recovery of the rich biome by reforestation amounting to more than 2 000 ha a year and the removal of 600 000 t of carbon-dioxide equivalent a year.

This news emerged during the London- and Johannesburg-listed mining major's sustainability performance update, opened by CE Duncan Wanblad. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

This included how its integrated approach to sustainability is unlocking value and securing its ability to deliver responsible long-term growth in future-enabling metals and minerals.

"While mining footprints are comparatively small, we believe we can play a positive role," Anglo nature and land head Ian Hudson stated during the webinar covered by Mining Weekly.

"We already have over 20 000 ha of this important biome under our management. Across our operations in Brazil, we undertake compensation and restoration works to increase that local biodiversity surrounding our operations," Hudson added.

Wanblad described sustainability as a pre-requisite for value creation in mining, through the delivery of operational excellence, portfolio improvement, and growth.

"Our sustainability and technology capabilities, and our approach to customer-centric marketing of our metal and mineral products, position us strongly as a partner of choice and thereby to create enduring value for all our stakeholders.

"Together, these are central to what we see as a competitive advantage in how we develop projects such as Quellaveco, Woodsmith and Sakatti, designed as the next generation of our FutureSmart Mines, with enhanced sustainability outcomes," said Wanblad.

Anglo sustainability director Helena Nonka emphasised the embedding of sustainability by the group into its strategy and value creation model, "from portfolio choices to our everyday operational decisions".

"One such example of our integrated approach is our work on nature, for which there are numerous compelling business cases, such as significant reductions in closure and rehabilitation costs, but also helping build greater trust in mining as societal expectations of our industry continue to increase in parallel with the need for essential metals and minerals.

"The health of our business is dependent on a healthy environment and we recognise the value of being able to share how our business measures and manages its key interfaces with nature so that our stakeholders can be confident in our approach to achieving a net positive impact on biodiversity," Nonka added.

INTEGRATED APPROACH TO NATURE

Nature rightly continues to gain momentum on the global agenda, with increased recognition of the threats to nature, its societal importance and the value of nature-based solutions to tackle climate change impacts, Anglo stated in a media release.

Its pathway to achieving net biodiversity gains in the areas it operates began with the implementation of its biodiversity standard at the end of 2018.

This standard defines how Anglo measures, assesses and manages biodiversity across its value chain and mining lifecycle - through to closure and regeneration.

Detailed baseline assessments across all managed operations have been completed. These define and assess significant biodiversity features, including habitats, species and ecosystems to protect and further restore.

In addition, a biodiversity management programme has been developed for each of its sites.

The plans are also used to feed into regional and national biodiversity programmes, adding value beyond its own site work.

"We're exploring partnerships, biomonitoring programmes and pioneering measurement metrics to support net positive impacts.

This includes the group's pr...

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The richness of South Africa's copper assets were emphasised on Monday when Northern Cape mine developer and explorer Orion Minerals published a standout intercept that sent its shares rocketing up 58% on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).

Orion, headed by CEO Errol Smart, is primarily listed on the ASX, where it has 1 300 shareholders, and secondarily listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), where it has 28 000 shareholders.

Prieska is its flagship development, where trial mining is already under way, and Okiep will be the district of its Flat Mines mining development, while two exploration projects are also under way.

"Prieska is the big chocolate cake. There are not very many cherries in Prieska, it's just a massive chocolate.

"Okiep is a chocolate cake with a whole lot of cherries mixed in and you keep finding these, and that's what we've seen today," said Smart.

Nothing like the high-grade copper intercept in the Flat Mines area of Okiep copper project, of 4.89% copper at 49 m and including 12.47% copper at 10.23 m, has been seen in South Africa in the last 40 years.

"Yes, it's in a zone where there were known intersections but at least now we've proved that it isn't a fluke, it isn't a one-off. There's a large zone of very high-grade mineralisation at this site," Smart during a webinar in Australia, covered by Mining Weekly.

"I had a federal trader in Sydney last week that was saying to me if you guys have got anything above 11%, we'll take it as direct shipping ore, they'll collect the broken rock at the mine portal and drive it away. That puts us into the context of what it is and it puts Okiep in the context of what this district is.

"The original Okiep mined over 900 000 t of hand-sorted ore at 21% copper. That's just unheard of. There aren't deposits like that in the world.

"But on our properties, the Okiep mine is also on one of our prospecting rights. There are deposits like this and we've got large known mineralised bodies that haven't been drilled out, and we see huge opportunity here," Boksburg-born Smart added.

Orion has a large undrawn facility from South Africa's Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and from Triple Flag, a precious metals streaming and royalty company, for its Prieska project, and has just done an IDC drawdown for Okiep as well.

Okiep has two development projects and two exploration projects that are well advanced and can add value relatively quickly in the Northern Cape, which has 30% of South Africa's land mass and only 3% of its population.

Historically, the Prieska and Okiep districts, which currently hardly produce at all, have collectively produced about 2.5-million tons of copper.

In consolidating over the last seven years, Orion has done more than 17 acquisitions involving mineral rights and data in an area that was strongly explored by mining majors such as Newmont, AngloVaal, Anglo American and Gold Fields in the 80s and 90s, which opens a door to advanced-stage projects for development.

Orion's flagship is the Prieska mine, which produced 46-million tons from a single, consolidated orebody.

Orion, with 31-million tons of resource there currently, expects this to rise to 50-million tons of resource.

AngloVaal, which developed the mine, in 1971 took it down to 1 200 m, with stoping stopped at 970 m. The mine's deepest ore is predeveloped with shafts and decline roadways to the bottom of the orebody.

Orion believes that it can produce 22 000 t/y of copper and about 79 000 t of zinc for 12 years at Prieska.

The feasibility study that determined this was done at a time when the copper price was $6 600/t and the zinc price $2 300/t, compared with today's zinc prices of $2 850/t and the copper price was touching on $10 000/t on Friday.

A team of 200, including 20 professionals, run Prieska, which is in a trial mining phase of up to 40 000 t a month.

The cornerstone of the financing is in pla...

Mining Weekly Editor Martin Creamer discussing palladium and platinum playing a key role in battery electric vehicles; the opportunity around the market development aspect of the platinum group metals industry; and talk of South Africa being well placed to benefit from huge green hydrogen outlook.

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The emerging use of electrofuel (eFuel) as an interchangeable substitute for petrol, diesel and aviation fuel has the potential to create important new demand for Southern Africa's platinum group metals (PGMs).

This is because eFuel is a combination of green hydrogen and waste carbon dioxide (CO2) and demand for PGMs will arise when proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers are used to generate the green hydrogen. PGMs and PEMs go hand-in-glove.

Infinium founder and CEO Robert Schuetzle made mention of this in a Zoom interview with Mining Weekly and reported that one of the two electrolysers chosen for his company's recently launched eFuels facility in Corpus Christi, Texas, is a PGM-using PEM system. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

Two electrolysis platforms were chosen by Infinium to gain procurement, commissioning, construction and now operational experience of the two platforms and their integration with eFuels.

"We'll need massive amounts of electrolysis for our eFuels facilities, so that could be a driver for PGMs in the PEM category," said Schuetzle.

Infinium is a technology owner and a project developer. It has a patent portfolio approaching 200 patents globally and manufactures its own proprietary catalysts in-house.

It has about a dozen projects at various stages of development globally, including the Roadrunner project in West Texas, and the Reuze project in Dunkirk, France, which is being developed with Engie and ArcelorMittal.

"We now have eFuels mandates in the EU as well as the UK. We know other geographies are looking at import benefits and a number of incentives around eFuels. While it's a new topic today, in the coming years, you'll see that accelerate and you'll see adoption of eFuels in customers' decarbonisation goals accelerate.

"It's close to a net zero carbon fuel solution and it doesn't require infrastructure changes because it's not a new specification. This is a drop-in transportation fuel, which, again, makes it easier for our customers to help achieve their decarbonisation goals," Schuetzle emhasised.

SOUTH AFRICA LINK

Interestingly, the PGM-promoting and South Africa-linked venture capital company, AP Ventures, is not only an investor in Infinium but a contributor that Schuetzle ranks as a strategic partner: "We work with them regularly on partnership opportunities, on project opportunities, on strategy."

"What I appreciate most about the AP Ventures team is their thought leadership in this industry, and the connections they're able to make," said Schuetzle.

With its proprietary technology, Infinium eFuels include sustainable eSAF aviation fuel, which can be used in today's aircraft fleet.

An e-diesel that can be used in long-haul transport, shipping or maritime applications anywhere that diesel is used is also produced, along with a naphtha product that is lighter than the diesel and the eSAF, but is used in petrochemical applications for the production of plastics.

"Because we use waste CO2 that would otherwise be emitted to atmosphere, these fuels, when produced, are very close to net zero carbon fuels that our customers such as Amazon and American Airlines, can use directly in their vehicle fleets to help achieve their decarbonisation goals," Schuetzle emphasised.

What is Infinium's background?

Infinium has a long history through our predecessor company that was focused on small-scale gas-to-liquids, very similar to the eFuels technology. But going back 15 years, our technology platform was focused on converting natural gas or waste gases like flare gas into fuels and chemicals. It's an area called gas-to-liquids. There are some major players that do it at very large scale, such as Shell and Sasol, but our platform operates at a very small scale due to our proprietary technology. Then, from that gas-to-liquids environment, a number of years ago we shifted to really focus on eFuels, very similar te...

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Minerals Council South Africa is focused on increasing the domestic demand for green hydrogen, which it sees as contributing to the kickstarting of the hydrogen economy in South Africa.

"The applications that we're looking at are stationary as well as mobility applications of using hydrogen within the mining industry," Minerals Council modernisation and safety senior executive Sietse van der Woude outlined during last week's Hydrogen Economy Discussion covered by Mining Weekly.

"The stationary applications may not make economic sense today but if you look at the future trends in terms of reliability and electricity price trends, then stationary applications can very well be a feasible option in the future," Van der Woude pointed out during a panel discussion facilitated by Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC) industry development planner Mahandra Rooplall, and in which Science and Innovation Department chief science and technology representative Dr Rebecca Maserumule as well as Bambili Energy CEO Zanele Mavuso Mbatha participated.

Rooplall reported that the IDC had been driving the development of the hydrogen industry for several years in facilitating the discussion on regional and global developments, technology, original equipment manufacturer (OEM) advances and implications for the mining industry.

Van der Woude pointed out that when it came to mobility application, heavy mine trucks could not be powered enough by electric means.

"So, we need to look at alternative ways and the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are an opportunity in that regard," he added.

In spelling out the hydrogen opportunity, Maserumule identified the six African countries that had hydrogen strategies as Algeria, Kenya, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia and South Africa amid more than 50 countries worldwide having hydrogen strategies.

The projected global numbers for hydrogen production show seven-million tons of green hydrogen or its derivative being produced a year by 2030, 32-million tons by 2040 and 72-million tons by 2050.

Maserumule drew attention to this being based on expected exports into Europe and Asia, which did not have sufficient renewables or which did not have the comparative advantage.

Africa securing 15% of that market would amount to one-million tons of green hydrogen by 2030, seven-million tons by 2040 and just under 19-million tons by 2050, a part of which would be domestic consumption.

"What's most exciting is that those numbers point to a cumulative investment by 2050 of $400-billion on the African continent for hydrogen production," Maserumule highlighted.

This does not include OEMs and other portions of the supply chain.

The export value for the African continent would be a $15-billion-a-year increase in African export value in 2050.

"The most exciting socioeconomic benefit is the 30-million job years that will be created by 2050 on the African continent if the continent is able to capture 15% of the global hydrogen economy.

In identifying the barriers to that, Maserumule spoke of Africa having a globally top comparative advantage for renewable energy production, with only China, Australia and Chile beating most of the African countries.

But unlike grey hydrogen, which South Africa produces in large quantities, one of the challenges of green hydrogen production is the intensive capital expenditure (capex) that is required.

While the cost of coal or natural gas has a considerable impact on grey hydrogen, the capex required for renewables and electrolysers has a major impact when it comes to the cost of green hydrogen.

There is a considerable gap between the cost of investment in developed countries compared with the cost of development in undeveloped countries.

South Africa's average internal rate of return, or IRR, is well positioned at between 11% and 14%.

Being chased is the levelised cost of hydrogen, with grey hydrogen at $2/kg and ...

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The sale by Southern African diamond mining company Petra Diamonds of an exceptional blue diamond in its fifth tender cycle lifted the average prices per carat received 22% higher than those of the prior Tender 4 sale.

The London Stock Exchange-listed company, headed by CEO Richard Duffy, reported on Tuesday that the price upliftment was the result of a remarkable14.76 ct exceptional clarity diamond, recovered from Cullinan diamond mine in Gauteng, fetching $8.2-million.

The Cullinan resource, which is famous for hosting the largest 3 106 ct gem diamond ever, has the potential to extend beyond 2050.

The fifth tender yielded an overall $49-million from the sale of 362 000 ct, with these proceeds more than offsetting the increase of quarter-three net debt.

Last month, the first of the 78-level second phase production tunnels at Petra's Finsch underground diamond mine in the Northern Cape was successfully commissioned. It is expected that the commissioning of the remaining six tunnels will be completed by June.

Production guidance of 2.75-million carats to 2.85-million carats for the 2024 financial year has been confirmed.

Petra reports that it is continuing to update its life-of-mine plans to support a transition to a smoother capital expenditure profile. This includes a replanned ramp-up of the deferred capital projects from the first quarter of the 2025 financial year.

The signing of a definitive transaction agreement for the sale of the Koffiefontein diamond mine in the Free State is expected to result in Petra avoiding closure-related costs of $15-million to $18-million.

The company has also announced an increased cost savings target of more than $30-million a year.

Half of these savings are expected to arise from a rebasing of fixed and variable costs in line with reduced throughput at Finsch, and the remaining half from savings across operating costs and overheads at group level and Cullinan.

During the quarter, Petra repaid $23-million of revolving credit facility finance to reduce interest costs. It had available liquidity of $104-million at the end of the quarter.

The average price of diamonds from Petra's Williamson diamond mine in Tanzania was lowered by reduced prevalence of higher-valued single diamonds, which is expected to be temporary in nature.

Petra's strategy is to focus on value rather than volume production and only operates in countries that are members of the Kimberley Process.

The company aims to generate tangible value for each of its stakeholders, thereby contributing to the socio-economic development of its host countries and supporting long-term sustainable operations to the benefit of its employees, partners and communities.

The company's loan notes due in 2026 are listed on the Irish Stock Exchange.

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New York- and Toronto-listed Platinum Group Metals, which is emerging in South Africa's Waterberg, on Tuesday provided an update on its new light battery technology that points to increasing potential of palladium and platinum playing a key energy density and weight-lowering role in cumbersome battery electric vehicles (BEVs), where they currently play no part.

Amid the market development of platinum group metals (PGMs) being collectively emphasised by South Africa's PGMs mining industry in unprecedented fashion, Platinum Group Metals restated its goal of this year creating prototypes for commercialisation consideration this year.

Intensive market development to support the use of palladium and platinum in lithium battery applications is embodied in Lion Battery Technologies, which Platinum Group Metals founded in partnership with South Africa's Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed Anglo American Platinum.

Lion's restated target is to develop batteries with specific energies that are 20% to 100% higher than current technologies while meeting or exceeding their present cycle lives.

The possibility of creating additional demand for platinum and palladium in the battery technology space is of significant potential strategic importance for South Africa's PGMs mining industry.

Lion Battery with Florida International University is advancing the programme that uses platinum and palladium to unlock the potential of lithium air and lithium sulphur battery chemistries to increase their discharge capacities and cyclability, which is poised to result in their widespread potential use in BEVs.

Moreover, Lion has engaged the Battery Innovation Center in Newberry, Indiana, to help accelerate commercialisation efforts for its next generation platinum and palladium based battery chemistries.

The Battery Innovation Center's scope of work is to conduct independent small and large scale trials to validate Lion's proprietary platinum and palladium based electrode composition, slurry, and films in both lithium sulphur and lithium-ion cells.

"Can we increase the energy density? Yes, we can," Lion Battery Technologies lead researcher Dr Bilal El-Zahab stated during a presentation, which is recorded on video on the website of Platinum Group Metals.

"EVs, that will need the battery, you are going to need the battery to be light and pack as many kilowatt hours per kilogram as possible into the battery.

Catalysts based on PGM nanoparticles offer a potentially rapid solution to many of the current battery problems and have been shown to improve the performance of the batteries.

WATERBERG PROJECT

In reporting its financial results for the six months ended February, Vancouver-based and Johannesburg-linked Platinum Group Metals, headed by CEO Frank Hallam, reiterated its focus on advancing the Waterberg Project located on the Northern Limb of the South Africa's PGM-rich Bushveld Complex in South Africa.

The project is being planned as a mechanised, shallow, decline access palladium, platinum, gold and rhodium four-element mine and near-term objectives are to advance it to a development and construction decision.

Waterberg JV Resources in April approved a $1.35-million stage-four budget to allow the continuation of work programs underway while the update to the definitive feasibility study is finalised.

The stage-four budget, covering the period from March to August, is a subcomponent of an approved two-year $21-million pre-construction work programme.

A cooperation agreement has been reached with Ajlan & Bros Mining and Metals to study the establishment of a stand-alone PGM smelter and base metal refinery in Saudi Arabia.

The study will seek to identify potential global sources of PGM concentrate that could augment the processing of the Waterberg Project concentrate in Saudi Arabia and minimise the risk of sourcing concentrate from only one project.

The Japan Organisation for M...

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The market development aspect of the platinum group metals (PGM) industry is fundamentally key, it was repeatedly stated at last week's 2024 Resources for Africa Platinum Day.

There is strong consensus that PGMs are amazing metals that are incredibly useful as future green metals across a broad range of applications.

The PGM elements platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium and osmium possess far-reaching physical and chemical characteristics that make them sought after by modern technology developers.

"If I could turn back the clock, I would've probably recommended to the board a far stronger investment in market development. Every dollar we invest will have a fundamental return long-term," Implats CEO Nico Muller commented in conversation with chairperson Bernard Swanepoel at the event covered by Mining Weekly.

"I'm encouraged that people are now starting to talk a lot about market development," Anglo American Platinum CEO Craig Miller commented in his conversation with Swanepoel.

"We need to do market development on the full basket and not just platinum and palladium and ensure that it's PGMs that underpin clean hydrogen in the lowest cost-plus way," Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman stated in the opening address.

"These are really important metals. They're really special in terms of what they do. In many applications across the world, they are essential for human existence," Northam Platinum CEO Paul Dunne highlighted.

"It's important that we give huge focus to the PGMs industry, which 2023 numbers show is the largest employer that spends the most on community development and contributes 10% of total exports to South Africa," Minerals Council South Africa CEO Mzila Mthenjane pointed out.

Meanwhile, as was reiterated at the event, platinum demand is returning to help solve the PGM basket problem, and a supply decline is effectively already happening.

It is not anticipated that prices will necessarily go back to where the industry had previously experienced them owing to drivetrain electrification and additional supply potentially coming to the market through recycling.

The widespread outlook is that because the industry is going through a structural change it should not rely too heavily on traditional price recovery and there is consensus that market development catch-up, particularly in the hydrogen space, must take place.

Mentioned frequently as one of the pivotal market developers is PGM-promoting and South Africa-linked venture capital company AP Ventures, created together with the Public Investment Corporation of South Africa.

AP Ventures has been recognised as the most active investor in hydrogen beginners globally by the Mind the Gap: Venture Funding of Hydrogen Start-ups report by H2UB and after visiting a Texas company in which AP Ventures is associated, Microsoft luminary Bill Gates had this to say: "The energy transition is happening faster than many people (including me!) dared hope."

In March, AP Ventures announced its investment in the pre-seed investment round of UK-based direct air capture company Airhive, co-leading the round alongside Coca-Cola Europacific Partners.

Airhive is developing a low-cost, energy-efficient and rapidly scalable technology to capture carbon from the atmosphere. This pre-seed round will support its technology development and the delivery of its second commercial pilot, which will be deployed later this year.

Anglo American Platinum expects prolonged deficits in platinum, a surplus in palladium and a rhodium market to move back into balance in 2024.

The original equipment manufacturer stocking, which took place during Covid, the microchip shortage and then the invasion of Ukraine, has been considerably destocked.

"It's clear that the market has bottomed out in the last six months," said Muller.

Fundamental deficits are being predicted along with a tightening market.

"I'm not expecting price...