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Technological Breakthroughs Raise Standards in Metal Refining

One of Australia’s top mining journalists Kristie Batten joins Stockhead in her new column placing a closer eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene.

The gold market has seen significant profit-taking after hitting all-time highs above $2,480 an ounce at the start of the week. While prices may continue to move lower, one bank is warning investors against betting against the precious metal.

Over the course of April and May, an inflow of more than half a million ounces of platinum poured into exchange traded funds (ETF) holdings in the UK, the biggest since South Africa’s ETF initial public offering (IPO) on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange nearly a quarter century ago.

Sibanye Stillwater would be forced to shutter its Montana palladium mine if prices fail to rebound soon, CEO Neal Froneman said Wednesday, according to Bloomberg. "The future of Stillwater remains in the balance," the CEO said when asked at a London conference about the outlook for the Montana mine. "If there's no correction in the price soon, as strategic as it is, we will have to put it on care ...

Heraeus has acquired McCol Metals, a Canadian recycler that specializes in recovering iridium from spent mixed metal oxide electrodes. McCol Metals will continue its recycling operations in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. The site will be operated by Heraeus Precious Metals, the precious metals division of the Heraeus Group.

Simulations at imec showed that using ruthenium vias for the first four layers of the interconnect stack reduces overall resistance by as much as 60%.

Four leaders in the North American catalytic converter recycling industry, PGM of Texas, Legend Smelting and Recycling, Daniel Ball Converter Recycling, and Maryland Core, have rebranded as Elemental North America. Announced June 19th, the new name signals the evolution of these companies from the collection and processing of used catalytic converters to a new stage of recovering and refining ...

The DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office is spending about $4 million to build a new facility for this research at Argonne National Laboratory. The new facility is expected to open in fall 2025.

"China's data did show a pause," David Tait, CEO of the World Gold Council (WGC), told Reuters on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Precious Metals Conference in Singapore. "(But) they are just waiting and watching. If prices correct to the $2,200 per ounce level, they will resume again."

The new hydrogen fuel cell technology is expected to be more productive and affordable than trends in present-day markets. It employs a cheaper ceramic membrane than platinum, a valuable metal that is added to any product and increases its overall price.

Tesla's new hydrogen project aims to use fuel cells to generate electricity. The first hydrogen-powered car, Model H, is expected to debut in 2026.

Watson referenced a chart showing platinum supply decreasing to 2030, as operational expenditures rise and miners close unproductive shafts. “We’re heading into a zone where we’re going to be in a structural deficit going forward,” he said.
Sterck agreed, stating that “it's just fundamentally the combination of mine and recycling supply continuing to run short of demand.” The WPIC projects a ...

We see higher not lower costs of hydrogen and slower not faster take up of production and demand than expected.

Mitsubishi Materials to join effort to prevent resources from being shipped abroad

"It takes real labor and real capital, and it takes energy to get those physical products from the ground," said Melek, and all those costs have been going up. "We are potentially in a world of escalating prices for the long run."

Metal–carbon composites are extensively utilized as electrochemical catalysts but face critical challenges in mass production and stability. We report a scalable manufacturing process for ruthenium surface-embedded fabric electrocatalysts (Ru-SFECs) via conventional fiber/fabric manufacturing.

“We need to see a real structural change in the supply of palladium to reassert pricing power into the market,” he said in an interview. “That’s obviously going to bring some pain but we think it’s necessary.”

Although silver prices rose to an 11-year high last week, the arbitrage window — or the spread between Chinese and world prices — has widened even further. That creates the incentive to send more metal to China, potentially squeezing supply for other countries.

Anglo American rejected on Wednesday a third takeover bid by BHP that valued the company at $49.2 billion, but it has agreed to extend the deadline for the world’s largest miner to make a formal offer. BHP now has until May 29 at 5pm GMT time to table a binding bid for its smaller rival, which is simultaneously working on a radical business overhaul that will see it divest its less profitable ...

The price of silver opened at $31.18 per ounce, as of 9 a.m. ET. That’s up 2.96% from the previous day’s silver price per ounce and up 30.33% since the beginning of the year. The lowest trading price within the last day: $29.72 per ounce. The highest silver spot price in the last 24 hours: $32.51 per ounce.