ETD Collection

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Subject: search.filters.subject.Platinum industry--South Africa

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    South African platinum group metals: possibility of beneficiation
    (2018) Skinner, Gary William
    South Africa has an immense Platinum Group Metals (PGM) resource and with such a mineral rich comparative advantage, as opposed to other nations, it would be expected that this windfall could be manipulated to create substantial economic benefit. Sheer comparative advantage does contribute to the economy but added revenue and job creation could be achieved by further processing the metals into higher saleable products by using beneficiation. As the resource is located, close in proximity to the manufacturing industry, the movement of metals from the PGM refineries to the manufacturing facilities should be an advantage. However, circumstances and nuances, related to PGMs, make this sequence irrelevant due to the low transport costs of refined PGMs to processing facilities outside of South Africa. The global auto catalyst industry was, by far, the largest consumer of PGMs in 2016. This single industry consumed 12 million ounces and this aspect of a dominant downstream application makes PGMs unique. The Beneficiation Strategy for the Mineral Industry of South Africa from the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) main value proposition was to translate the comparative advantage of the country’s mineral wealth into a related industrial competitive advantage and also to create employment. This mechanism was to be achieved through industrial diversification to produce upgraded, higher value products from raw or semi processed mineral products. Fundamentally, this notion is flawed with the downstream PGM industry as the location of the deposit compared to the processing zone has no bearing on the position of the auto catalyst manufacturer. The stimulus for this industry does not have the same drivers as compared to the extractive industry. The auto catalyst industry is dominated by a handful of multinational catalytic converter companies. These companies base their strategy on locality of competitive advantage, incentive policies are a major consideration as to the position of manufacturing facilities. The South African catalytic converter manufacturing industry has a global reach and is considered a trade policy success story. South Africa has an incentive policy which attracted these companies, but South Africa is not geographically located near to major automotive manufacturing hubs. In 2016, South Africa accounted for 1% of the global passenger car and commercial vehicle production and remarkably, produced 15% of the world’s auto catalysts. The incentive policy which drives the local auto catalyst industry uses local content addition to qualify for 65% export rebate certificates. Refined PGMs form part of the local content addition and South African refined PGMs are used in local auto catalyst manufacturing facilities. The driver for the auto catalyst industry is to qualify for the export rebate, local PGMs add to this qualification but the reality is that there is no real other advantage to use local PGMs. The South African auto catalyst sector is a R 20 billion South African industry, however, the primary PGM source, or the extractors, are struggling to maintain financial stability. The downstream beneficiation value chain is loaded in favour of the auto catalyst manufacturer and not advantageous to the extractor. South Africa supplied 56% of the global PGM demand in 2016 but this was overshadowed by the poor financial health of the PGM extraction industry which was subjected to a 47% platinum price plunge from 2010-2017. To leverage the maximum financial advantage through downstream beneficiation of the South African PGM supply is not possible. This would be a considerable risk to the multi-national auto catalyst manufactures who would have all of their investment in South Africa. Considering the remarkable progress of the South African auto catalyst industry, opportunities exist to re-evaluate the PGM value chain to benefit all stakeholders.
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    Application of techno-economic modelling in the platinum mining industry of Southern Africa
    (2016) Erasmus, Andries Gustav
    Management does not have an efficient mechanism to test strategic and operational alternatives and to assess the impact of these on the value and underlying trade-off variables of the business. Techno-economic models can be applied for this purpose as they provide a framework for undertaking advanced process simulation and business valuation. The purpose of the research report is to identify key components, principles and best practice as applied in techno-economic models, to improve techno-economic modelling for the purpose of decision-making and business optimization. The integrated techno-economic model requires a mining model with production planning and scheduling abilities. The half-level system method can be applied to create production profiles for different mining options and only after optimisation the best option is taken forward for graphical design and detailed scheduling. A metallurgical model incorporates the logic and efficiencies of the treatment process into the techno-economic model from which the refined products are determined for revenue and costing purposes. The financial model integrates with the mining and metallurgical elements and uses detailed costing models and sound financial principles for operating and capital cost estimates. An accurate techno-economic model includes key cash flow components and applies rigorous valuation practice for investment analysis. Techno-economic models are extensively applied in business planning, major project valuations and stay–in-business project valuations. Learnings from the review of these case studies suggest best practice, which allows the models to be applied to different types of business entities and contributes to the accuracy, consistency and efficiency of techno-economic modelling. Integrated techno-economic modelling is also applicable in strategic planning and mine design optimization as it provides a powerful instrument for decision-making and business optimization. The future of the mining business depends on it as an invaluable direction steering tool.