World 'needs Australia's platinum to build cleaner cars'By...

World 'needs Australia's platinum to build cleaner cars'
By Joanne Dodgson
Technology needs platinum: A hydrogen-powered car (ABC)
An Australian researcher has warned that the drive to put cleaner, hydrogen-fuelled cars on the road will stall unless new reserves of platinum are found.
Platinum is one of the key components of catalytic converters, catalysing carbon monoxide from exhaust fumes.
It is also a critical component of fuel cells for hydrogen-powered cars.
However 80 per cent of the world's reserves come from just three mines.
John Mavrogenes says a team of geochemists from the Australian National University has identified new methods to detect platinum deposits.
They are simulating the intense heat and pressure of the Earth's magma to discover whether platinum can be extracted from other minerals.
"This work may help geologists find new reserves around the world in places that haven't been searched before," he said.
Professor Mavrogenes says if the platinum price remains at its current high, Australia could mine lower-grade deposits.
"At $2,100 an ounce - and remember that is more than twice the price of gold - at that sort of price and if it was to go higher, we could then start looking at lower grade deposits," he said.
"And we know for sure there are at least two significant platinum deposits in Australia that we would seriously start to look at."
The three major mines that produce platinum are in South Africa, Siberia and the United States.
"If we go to more and more uses of platinum we're going to need more than they can produce," Professor Mavrogenes said.
"Existing reserves would meet less than 20 per cent of the world's platinum demand if all cars went hydrogen."
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