|
|
|
|
[ materials ] |
|
16 %
Recycled autocat
5 %
Recycled jewellery
1 %
Other recycling
14 %
Other mining
|
2021 Platinum Supply 244 t |
65 %
Southern Africa mining
|
5 %
Other mining
* Including some sales from producer stocks
2021 Iridium Supply 8 t *
|
95 %
Southern Africa mining
|
Platinum and iridium total supply ( primary and secondary ) in 2021 ( matthey . com / pgm-market-report-2022 )
PGM mining and refining is complex and technically challenging , so the sector is populated by several large , publicly quoted mining companies who are subject to stringent mining and labour regulation , rather than ‘ artisanal ’ mining . These well-established companies report annually on their production plus environmental , social and governance ( ESG ) performance . While the wider operating environment in South Africa and Zimbabwe has frequently been challenging , and risks remain as they do for mining operations anywhere , output from these operations has been remarkably resilient . At a political level , South Africa and Zimbabwe both recognise the enormous economic benefit of their PGM mining operations .
Thanks to the size of these deposits , and the vast quantities of PGMs they are estimated to host , we can be confident that enough PGM can be extracted to meet global needs for decades to come – although further investment will be needed to maintain and expand output . As the primary product of this mining , platinum ’ s central role in hydrogen technologies will be an important incentive for investment . And a strong business case for continued investment in platinum helps deliver a healthy supply of iridium .
Recycling is a given for PGMs
PGM recycling happens routinely . Johnson Matthey was a pioneer in PGM recycling and is the largest global secondary refiner by volume of these metals today . Other companies also operate large secondary PGM refineries across the world that process substantial volumes of scrap material . The largest source of recycled metal returned to the market every year ( known as secondary supply ) is catalytic converters , recovered from scrapped diesel and gasoline vehicles . Collection and processing of these parts can be encouraged by recycling mandates but is primarily incentivised by the value of the PGMs they contain .
Already nearly a quarter of platinum supplied to the market every year is recycled metal . But even that is not the whole story : significant PGM recycling also happens in what we call ‘ closed loop ’. This is metal that is recovered from end-of-life products , processed , but then returned to the original owner for reuse in the same application , for example in PGM-based process catalysts . This closed-loop recycling considerably reduces the ongoing requirement for primary ( mined ) metal in a wide range of industrial applications .
This is particularly important for iridium , because the recyclability of iridium is often raised as a challenge . In fact , substantial quantities of iridium
Hydrogen Tech World | Issue 7 | December 2022 15