Major Platinum Miners Betting on Fuel Cell Technology

Reuters reported that the world’s three largest platinum producers are investing in fuel cell technologies, which “generate electricity that can power vehicles by combining hydrogen and oxygen over a platinum catalyst.”

However, with electric and hybrid cards taking a larger share of the market, fuel cell vehicles are likely to see some decline in popularity.

As quoted in the market news:

[A]nalysts doubt fuel cell vehicles will rival the growth of their electric counterparts, mostly because battery recharging stations are less costly and already more widespread than hydrogen refuelling stations.

‘As out of the two new technologies only fuel cells use platinum, I guess the miners think they have no choice,’ Macquarie analyst Matthew Turner said. ‘But people are buying electric cars…and that’s not the case for fuel cells.’

Amplats, which has invested about $35-million in the last five years in companies developing new uses for platinum, mostly through fuel cell technology, is mindful of the stakes.

‘I don’t want Anglo American Platinum, or any of our partners or customers to be a Kodak,’ Amplats CE Chris Griffith said last week, referring to the once mighty photography pioneer that was slow to transition to digital photography.

‘If fuel cells are not adopted, we may have no auto market for platinum by 2050.’

Click here to read the full Reuters report.