Electric vehicles (EVs) are synonymous with lithium and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) are synonymous with platinum group metals (PGMs), but will the twain meet?
They certainly will if Toronto- and New York-listed Platinum Group Metals (PTM) CEO R Michael Jones has anything to do with it.
Jones’s parting shot to moderator Bernard Swanepoel at the virtual 2020 PGMs Industry Day was this: “If you’re a great EV believer, watch out – PGMs can actually move across.”
Jones is not only developing the new greenfield Waterberg PGMs mine in South Africa’s Limpopo province but he is also backing research that centres on lithium oxygen and lithium sulphur batteries performing better with the addition of PGMs, which can increase a battery’s energy density. Waterberg is planned as a bulk mechanised underground palladium, platinum, gold and rhodium operation at a time of serious rhodium shortage and significant palladium demand.