Every Friday, SAfm’s radio anchor speaks to Martin Creamer, publishing editor of Engineering News & Mining Weekly. Reported here is this Friday’s At the Coalface transcript:

SAfm: Incentivising mining exploration in South Africa is an absolute must.

Creamer: South Africa’s mines are getting deeper, they're getting older, and the mining industry will phase out unless you get exploration going. Exploration means you drill down into the earth and you see what you can find in terms of metals and minerals, and then you decide whether you're going to have a mine there or not. But it's quite risky, and unless you have an incentive for people to do this in the form of a tax break, they will not do it, and we've seen that in other countries, if you don't have an incentive, they won't risk the cost of drilling down into the earth. So what Minerals Council South Africa is promoting is what they call a flow-through scheme so that those who do invest will get tax relief, which means that they are confident in doing share buying that results in exploration. But at the same time, our exploration system, it's called a cadastre system, which shows you where you can drill, where you can apply for exploration permits, is really in a bad state at the moment, and the government needs to get that up to speed so that our mining industry doesn't fade out, because mining contributes massively to our economy.

SAfm: Major steps are being made to locally beneficiate platinum group metals at the OR Tambo IDZ.

Creamer: It's quite an important development because platinum group metals are valuable metals that South Africa hosts in the biggest quantity in the world, and they are incredibly diverse metals. They can do so much and one of the things they can do, and that’s so important at the moment because of the Middle East crisis, is they can create energy, not only energy to fuel your car, but it's clean energy, so this is very welcome. What's going to happen in the Industrial Development Zone at OR Tembo, is a company called Isondo Precious Metals and a partner are going to make parts that will enable you to create an electrolyser, and that means you can actually generate hydrogen. Now, when we say generate hydrogen, you need platinum group metals to do that and then once you have the hydrogen, you use platinum group metals again, this time to turn that hydrogen into electricity, to drive your car, to drive your boat, to drive everything under the sun, as is happening around the world, and because of this Middle East crisis, people are swinging back to putting platinum-based hydrogen to use to power cars, buses, trucks, ships and power stations. We've had opportunities to do this in the past, we've been slow, but this Isondo has been watching the situation for a long time, and they're now going ahead, flat out,

Creamer:

SAfm: Local hydrogen production will boost South Africa’s platinum group metals business, says Valterra Platinum.

Creamer: 

When I say Valterra, that is a new name for Anglo American Platinum and Anglo American Platinum’s major platinum group metals assets now fall under the name of Valterra Platinum, and it's very important for a major mining company like Valterra to say in its latest reports that local hydrogen production can really set up a lot of demand for platinum group metals, and if you set up a lot of demand for platinum group metals, you help South African mining. Now, for years, we've heard South Africa’s mining companies giving all sorts of data to show how if you use these metals properly, you can create hundreds and thousands of jobs. It goes back to, well, decades. We used to see all the statistics of how if you move in the platinum beneficiation direction to create energy, you can create a lot of jobs, and at the moment, South Africa needs the energy because of the Middle East crisis, but it also needs the jobs because we are very short of jobs here. So, this statement by Valterra is very important, and joining Valterra is also Impala Platinum, which sees the present as a very good time for hydrogen. Sibanye-Stillwater, also a platinum miners, is saying, really, we bullish about hydrogen. We've had Northern Platinum go to China and see thousands of trucks going around using hydrogen and coming back here, because they are also linked to Minerals Council South Africa, the have been saying, you've got to go over China. You must see for yourself. We've seen with our own eyes how Sasol-type hydrogen, the hydrogen that South Africa’s Sasol phas been producing since 1950, is providing the energy for thousands of trucks that are being driven around China. So, at this time of crisis in the Middle East, the spotlight is shining brightly again on platinum-based hydrogen. We also have the fuel prices rising, which provides a big opportunity to move into hydrogen and to declare energy independence, using our platinum group metals and producing hydrogen to drive our vehicles and to produce electricity from stationary hydrogen power plants.

Martin Creamer of Engineering News & Mining Weekly, will be back at the Coal-Face at the same time next Friday.