JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa will be well represented at the upcoming Shanghai Platinum Week 2024, which takes place from July 8 to 11, Minerals Council South Africa VP Paul Dunne has highlighted.

This major event will occur amid the growth in demand for platinum group metals (PGM) applications in China being extremely high, which makes detailed access to the Chinese market hugely advantageous for South Africa.

“There’ll be a strong contingent of South African miners in Shanghai,” Dunne, who is also CEO of Northam Platinum, assured.

“While it’s called Shanghai Platinum Week, in many respects it’ll be the hydrogen metals that we’ll be looking at – and South Africa, as well as Minerals Council South Africa, will be well represented,” said Dunne, in response to a question put by Mining Weekly during the media conference that followed the council’s 134th AGM in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Mining Weekly: At this week’s South African-organised London Indaba, Barrick Gold Corporation chairperson John Thornton put major emphasis on the Western mining industry needing to see the future faster, an insight which, he pointed out, China, in particular, is able to offer. Is Minerals Council South Africa intent on assuring an East-West balance to enable South Africa’s mining industry – which needs to take urgent steps to enter a crucial new growth phase – to see the future faster?

“Economies in the East are very, very important to the success of our industry,” was another of Dunne's affirmative response comments.

In his response, Minerals Council CEO Mzila Mthenjane noted that, in addition to South Africa’s need to have quicker access to what lies ahead, particularly in the case of critical minerals and metals, it is also vital that South Africa positions itself to be able to view the changing future from a South African perspective, taking into account the opportunities and the risks of the shifting geopolitical landscapes as they present themselves.

“We’re in the very fortunate position of being potential suppliers of these commodities and our look to the future also needs to be considerate of ourselves, our needs, and what we can get out of these minerals from a developmental perspective, as well as how we can help to ensure that the rest of the world is able to climate transition competently and competitively."

Mthenjane is in full agreement with the need for East-West balance: “We need to look to both the East and the West,” he stated unequivocally.

WORLD’S LARGEST PGMS CONSUMER

The Shanghai event – sandwiched between the London Platinum Week that took place in May and the New York Platinum Week that is scheduled to take place in September – will be conducted with simultaneous translation at a time when China is reinforcing itself as the world’s largest PGMs consumer and South Africa being the largest PGMs supplier.

The crucial event will also unfold for the fourth time in an emerging new era where vehicle manufacture in China is increasing beyond that of the US, making the Asian country’s market extremely important from a palladium, platinum, and even rhodium perspective, World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) CEO Trevor Raymond commented in a Zoom interview with Engineering News & Mining Weekly earlier this year.

Moreover, platinum is integral to China’s commitment to global decarbonisation by 2060, with the country’s strong interest illustrated by last year’s Shanghai Platinum Week attracting more than 1 200 in-person delegates from more than 400 different organisations, as well as 180 000 online attendees.

Confirmed attendees include the Guangzhou Futures Exchange, the Bank of Montreal, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Japan’s JPX, and many financial, recycling and industrial organisations within China.

Although roughly a third of all PGMs go into China, the country is one of the more opaque markets for non-Chinese market participants, which the week sets out to remedy by providing insight into where China’s value proposition for PGMs lies.

As WPIC director of research Edward Sterck has pointed out, green hydrogen is going to be a big feature across the conference, along with growing use of PGMs in the semiconductor industry and in the extended-range electric vehicle (EV) segment.

Extended-range EVs are battery electric vehicles that also have internal combustion engines that effectively recharge the battery and extend the range of travel.

Most extended-range EVs have ranges of about 1 000 km on full battery charge and full fuel tank, and their exhaust treatment systems continue to contain PGMs.

Chinese investors have known platinum for many years as jewellery and with more people saving for retirement, having platinum as part of a retirement investment makes a lot of sense.

There are no platinum mines in China and having platinum on Chinese soil is seen as a good idea.

“We know that supply growth and demand growth don’t always match, so we’ve encouraged the Chinese policymakers to recognise the importance of platinum investment demand, and of having more platinum metal on Chinese soil as a certain support to the industrial use of platinum over time.

“Having the Shanghai Platinum Week on the global calendar is probably ideal timing. The four-year gestation period has certainly been well worth it and we look forward to the week becoming something that is really helpful to investors around the world and participants in the broader PGM industry,” Raymond highlighted.

Following the event, international participants will be taken to meet a number of the hydrogen-related companies in the Shanghai region, and they will also be given an opportunity to meet and converse with Chinese policymakers.

Those wanting to know more about the event should go to www.shanghaiplatinumweek.com, where all of the details are available, along with the registration process. Also listed are the emails of WPIC contacts Yvonne: yxu@platinuminvestment.com and Grace: wlin@platinuminvestment.com

WPIC IN SHANGHAI SINCE 2017

With an office in Shanghai since 2017, the WPIC team is able to provide PGMs knowledge to China, which helps investors to make more informed investment decisions.

All the current PGM uses are represented in China, where there is a strong growth in the automotive, industrial, jewellery, and investment sectors.

While significant awareness of PGMs has been created, market liquidity remains an issue for investment and industrial participants.

To increase participation, great effort is being made to ensure that a platinum and palladium future is available to enable local users of these metals to hedge price risk.