THE MINING YEARBOOK 2021
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FROM SCIENCE PROJECT TO REALITY: THE ‘HYDROGEN ECONOMY’ IS POWERING UP BY ED STODDARD
In a little over two years, the boffins have turned extra-serious about how the hydrogen economy will change the world’s metal markets.
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hat do the 2019-2020 bush fires that ravaged Australia and the future of the platinum and copper mining industries have in common? The former is seen as a catalyst that has shifted the drive to clean energy sources into fifth gear. The latter stand to benefit from this route, even as the internal combustion engine slowly goes the way of the dodo. This is because the road to decarbonisation will in part be paved by the rise of the ‘hydrogen economy’, and platinum, and to a lesser extent copper, are seen as playing a crucial role in this transition. “If you spoke about the hydrogen economy two years ago, it was viewed as a science project. But the Australian bush fires started to sway views quite strongly on climate change and the pandemic crystallised a lot of people’s views on sustainability and decarbonisation,” Trevor Raymond, director of Research at the World Platinum Investment Council told Miningmx in an interview. Copper, a metal for which new uses are constantly being found, is one of the commodities that will see boosted demand because of these trends as diesel and petrol vehicles are phased out and replaced by battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). “FCEVs have 70-100% more copper in their traction motors compared to standard gasolinepowered vehicles,” BMO Capital Markets said in a recent report on hydrogen fuel cells. This extends to the infrastructure required to power hydrogen, which will also affect metals markets. “We believe the drive toward local distribution capacity will increase, and in the long term, result in fewer transmissions lines [hurting aluminium demand], but ultimately benefiting copper,” BMO said. That will be good news for the likes of Codelco and BHP. The real demand will stem from platinum, which is seen getting a new lease on life after being battered by Volkswagen’s ‘Dieselgate’ scandal, and a switch to petrol engines from diesel. Fuel cell technology to power vehicles, as things stand, is heavily reliant on platinum. This is why companies such as Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) are investing so much research and development into the technology. In the case of its parent, Anglo
