Valterra Platinum, previously Anglo America Platinum (Amplats), is confident about the future of the platinum group metals (PGMs) market and confident that the newly demerged company is well positioned to capitalise on opportunities that it has identified, as these materialise.

The was highlighted by CEO Craig Miller, speaking during the first day of the London Indaba, being held this week.

Valterra was formed through Amplats’ demerger from diversified miner Anglo American, with the finalisation of the demerger of the majority of Anglo’s interest in Valterra completed on May 31. At that point, Anglo held about 19.9% of Valterra’s shares in issue, which it planned to hold for at least 90 days.

Miller highlighted that PGM market fundamentals remained robust, with demand and supply fundamentals suggesting a price upside.

Existing demand is projected to remain stronger than initially forecast, while new demand would come from high-potential new use cases.

The market supply deficit is expected to continue to persist in the medium term, with primary supply continuing to decline, and recycling, which is a notable contributor to supply, under-delivering.

Miller noted that the industry had scaled back investment and unprofitable production had been cut.

The supply and demand outlook created an upside potential, he pointed out, with positioning on the cost curve being important.

Miller asserted that Valterra’s endowment afforded the company longevity and strong growth opportunities. He acclaimed that the company had a track record of growing PGM demand through market development, and disciplined allocation spend through a balanced portfolio.

He said the company was positioned for current prices, as well as leveraged to outperform when these recovered.

The majority of PGM demand comes from automotive catalysers, and Miller said that recent trends gave reason for greater optimism.

Valterra’s outlook was that mobility trends supported higher vehicle sales than current forecasts, and catalysed vehicles were expected to have a greater market share for longer. The market demand still overwhelming favoured catalysed vehicles, he explained, bar China, which had different dynamics.

Moreover, Miller said Valterra believed that stricter emission standards and improved testing were likely to lead to increased loadings. He explained that tighter standards and testing typically equated to more PGMs per car.

Miller noted that industry was a large user of PGMs, and that this existing application demand was expected to grow in line with GDP growth.

Jewellery demand was also expected to retain a key role, with this recovering in China, and more potential if platinum could make up some of the ground it lost to white gold. There was also strong potential for PGMs from the green transition, Miller pointed out.

He highlighted future potential growth areas for PGMs as including the hydrogen economy, sustainable aviation, e-fuels, carbon-neutral feedstock, AI and cloud computing and price-led PGM innovation.

Miller highlighted that there was the prospect of greater future PGM demand owing to these new or enhanced applications.

He asserted that Valterra, as a “leading PGMs producer”, was poised to capitalise on opportunities, which it would be undertaking through five strategic priorities.

These are advancing health and safety; a simplified and strengthened organisation; achieving operational excellence; investing in the portfolio for maximum value; and driving demand to ensure long-term success.

The company will look to leverage its considerable resource base in Southern Africa, which currently houses almost 80% of the world’s known PGM reserves.

Miller pointed out that PGMs would remain globally strategic, as they were classified as critical minerals in many countries and trading blocs, and had far-reaching societal benefits, such as contributing about 5% to South Africa’s GDP and 10% to its export earnings, as well as supporting jobs and generating fiscal revenue.