Six-million-ounce platinum demand opportunity from hydrogen truck fleets

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If a 20% global truck fleet share can be secured at current or near current platinum loading, there is a six-million-ounce opportunity from a demand perspective, according to Valterra Platinum executive head: marketing Hilton Ingram, who added that truck fleets in their thousands are already being driven around China by producers, distributors and users of low-cost hydrogen.
A fundamental driver of truck fleet demand is the reduction by China of its reliance on energy imports from other countries, said Ingram, who sees China as the most appropriate country to establish a low-cost source of hydrogen at refuelling stations ahead of global replication, hopefully also in South Africa. (Also see attached Creamer Media video.)
In response to Mining Weekly's request for energy-security pursuit insight, Ingram hydrogen stays a strategic element in China's strategy as a result of reliance on energy imports being lessened.
"We're seeing areas of industrial demand uplift, particularly in China, particularly in response to energy security," Ingram reported during Valterra's online and in-person platinum group metals (PGMs)value chain media briefing in Rosebank.
In another response during the webinar, Ingram explained that while Valterra is working with Sasol and other industry players around the hydrogen economy in South Africa, establishing a low-cost source of hydrogen at refuelling stations is best solved in China and then replicated globally.
"The nice thing about it, on the hydrogen side of things, is that China is in its 15th Five Year Plan, and they're talking about significant resource upgrade investments in China.
"We've just in the last week or so had greater clarity around the city clusters that will be impacted by that, and we're waiting to see what each of those individual city clusters and regions are going to focus on, so that'll give us greater insight into the impacts and applications there.
"But the fundamental driver in the space around China is diversifying their energy base, and as result, reducing their reliance on energy imports from other countries," said Ingram, who is next year's incoming chairperson the 100-member International Hydrogen Fuel Cell Association (IHFCA), a global non-profit organisation established in July 2022 and headquartered in Beijing.
This has already given rise to the development of China's current closed-loop hydrogen fuel cell mobility system, which is taking place amid aspirations to advance from closed-loop into a new open-loop era that can be emulated globally.
"So, what you'll see is truck fleets in their thousands being used by folk that produce low-cost hydrogen, distribute the low-cost hydrogen, and use the low-cost hydrogen.
"You have a company like Rockcheck, which moves its iron-ore from port to its steel mill with fuel cell trucks, and it moves its finished product from steel mill to customer using fuel cell trucks," Ingram explained. Tianjin Rockcheck Steel Group Company is a Chinese steel manufacturing enterprise based in Tianjin that processes ferrous metals and utilises iron-ore for steel production.
In March, Northam Platinum CEO Paul Dunne expressed the belief that the world had moved from over-estimating hydrogen to under-estimating it and spoke of the need for more extensive China travel to further witness the emergence of the hydrogen economy.
The next step in the journey is looking to develop open-loop systems, which Ingram outlined as requiring low-cost hydrogen produced by one company, distributed by another company, and used by others.
"That challenge, we think, is best solved inside of China, and for the moment we think the best chance of that success is in the Yangtze River Delta region and so we're working with our partners in the...