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

Kamwendo: Great new strides were taken this week to put platinum fuel cells on the global map.

Creamer: This is wonderful news coming out of Germany, they have cracked the code of transporting hydrogen safely and cost-efficiently. They have sold the first two systems to the biggest supplier of hydrogen in the United States. This is interesting, because behind it all, of course, are the South Africans, that is Anglo American Platinum. They have funded this German start up, which has had this breakthrough quite quickly. I think they gave them the first lot of money in 2014 and already we have got a substantial results.

What, of course, we want to emerge from this is the emergence of a cost-effective fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV), that is the end product that we want. So, we want the FCEV, but we are up against the electric vehicle (EV). Guess who is driving the electric vehicle? Another South African, Elon Musk, a guy who was educated at Pretoria Boys High. He has chosen lithium over platinum, because we want the FCEV because they need platinum, whereas the electric vehicles go for lithium. Hopefully the South African roots will come through and Tesla’s Elon Musk will come over to platinum.

Even if he doesn't, we can see momentum really building now in the biggest car market of the world, the United States, getting the underpin for the FCEV. At the same time in Japan, we see that they are moving very well into the fuel cell era, they have got a 2040 vision. By 2040 they will be carbon neutral and that is what the fuel cell can give the world, clean, quiet, zero-emission electricity, both as a stationary power station and a driver of a car. We are happy to see our own Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor has been pushing this for many years now in South Africa.

She is beginning to smile because we see forklifts also being driven by fuel cells out at Springs. We see steps being taking in Springs by Impala Platinum to generate 22 MW of electricity itself using its own fuel cells that will power the refinery out there. So, all the way thumbs are going up for fuel cells and that means more demand for platinum and platinum mines need that demand.

Kamwendo: The discovery of helium gas in the Free State has opened the way for major new investment.

Creamer: Wonderful news from the Free State. Helium is a very important gas, it is a rare gas and it does high tech things and it also blows up party balloons. We have got to take our hats off to Renegen, which is listed on AltX on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and, of course, the big Afrox and Linde of Germany combining now to get this helium out of the ground.

They have got a big area stretching from Virginia to Welkom. You don’t want to try and get helium out of the air, that is pretty expensive. We have got it in the ground in the Free State and can you believe our miners have been drilling in the Free State in Virginia in that area and they have been drilling right past the helium going for the gold, at the lower level. At the shallower 400-metre mark is this helium and it is going to be extracted now by this team made up of big players, Afrox, Linde and Renegen.

They are coming through with a R200-million investment to actually separate out that helium. It means that we won’t have to import helium. If they get this helium out of the ground in the Free State we won’t have to import it, and we are doing it on quite a scale at the moment. We can actually export it and there is a demand. Linde of Germany has said anything you don't want, give to us, we will be able to use and send it into the world. Only 400-metres deep and they will start off with what will be an equivalent of 800 000 litres of diesel a day.

They have already, because of the surplus gases that they have got, tied up with Unitrans Megabus, which will be using compressed natural gas to fuel their buses and take kids to school in the area with buses driven by this gas that comes out of the ground there in Virginia. There is, of course, a lot of other effort to get more going. Those mines that drilled right past the gases in search of gold may soon be buyers of the gases because Afrox will also look to the mines saying you need electricity we can give you the gas to generate your own electricity to power your mines.

Kamwendo: South Africa’s stressed iron-ore mines will benefit from this week’s Australian commitment to take its foot off the production accelerator.

Creamer: Australians are all over, but South Africans are all over, so the person who assured shareholders in Australia in Brisbane this week that Rio Tinto won’t produce anymore iron-ore than current capacity was none other than a South African, Jan du Plessis, who is the chairman of Rio Tinto. He told his shareholders that they are going to go easy on excess production of iron-ore.

They realise that iron-ore is a big money spinner for them and that they can’t just over produce, because they have come under fierce criticism, particularly from smaller miners saying what the hell are you guys doing. You are trying to crush the small guys, but all you are really doing is crushing the Australian economy by over producing your iron ore. Rio’s high production is also hurting a lot of other people in the world, including our own Kumba Iron Ore.

Kamwendo: Thanks very much. Martin Creamer is publishing editor of Engineering News and Mining Weekly.