An interview published in The Metals Report, 13 March 2013, is a “minefield” of speculation by two industry consultants on the future market for platinum group metals (PGMs).
But it’s more than that, raising fundamental questions about the economics of supply and demand for other minerals, too (notably uranium and Rare Earths). And the implications of this for the future of mining.
Consultants Lifton and King focus on platinum as a vital metal for catalytic converters used in petrol-driven vehicles. PGMs are currently in very short supply for reasons not hard to find. (Continuing upheavals and strikes at UK-owned mines, such as Lonmin and Anglo Platinum in South Africa, being one of them).
However, there’s a bright light at the end of this particular tunnel. Says Lifton: “A catalytic converter is far richer in PGMs by weight than any mine ever devised by man…The great North American platinum mine is rolling around on our highways and streets. From a U.S. perspective, the future is less a question of digging rock and more a question of efficiently and deliberately recycling”.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=12199.