DTI considers platinum special economic zone

Mining Weekly Online reports that South Africa's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is giving serious consideration to the creation of a special economic zone (SEZ) for platinum development. DTI director-general Lionel October said that a DTI team is working with the participants to determine the economic viability of establishing a central platinum hub with satellites to "allow for locational flexibility".

"Some of the provinces and our local companies have been working on moving into the commercialisation of fuel-cell technology, so definitely this could be one area that we designate into an SEZ," said October. The South African government is hoping its new SEZs Bill and policy will create the framework for the development of new industrial nodes outside of the traditional industrial heartlands. Platinum has been identified as one of South Africa's strategic minerals as the overwhelming bulk of the world's deposits are in South Africa and neighbouring Zimbabwe.

Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll told the United Nations COP 17 in Durban recently that South Africa can create "hundreds of thousands of new jobs" while obtaining a source of clean "zero-emission electricity" by developing fuel-cells in this country. JSE-listed Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) is the world's largest producer of platinum, which is used as a catalyst in fuel cells. "With platinum at its heart, a fuel cell industry would support South Africa's drive for jobs," Carroll said. Last year Amplats unveiled a pioneering clean-energy fuel-cell power plant that reforms coal-bed methane gas into hydrogen to produce both electricity and heat, at 83% efficiency.

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