As a result, there will be continuing pressure to find less...

As a result, there will be continuing pressure to find less polluting ways to power vehicles. Fuel cells, which employ a platinum catalyst to combine hydrogen and oxygen, are likely to become one of the chosen technologies, especially for large vehicles that must be able to travel long distances, he argued.
“This is seriously important to the precious-metals business,” he said. A typical fuel-cell-powered car might use an ounce of platinum.
The next generation of cars such as the Tesla Model 3 will also require large amounts of copper because of the metal’s use in high-efficiency induction motors, he predicted.
However, many of the new cars will no longer need rare earths, a group of elements used in many consumer electronics, he stressed.
Chinese suppliers have dominated the production of rare earths in recent years and have been accused of driving up prices, but “don’t worry about the Chinese squeezing our testicles,” he said. “We don’t need them any more.”
Neither, he said, will the world need as much lithium as many projections declare. “I think most lithium mines are also going to end in tears,” he predicted, as fuel cells prove to be superior to lithium ion batteries for many applications.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repo...future-mining-financier-says/article32086630/