Glyn Lewis, CEO, Northam Platinum
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Heraeus builds SA platinum refinery
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Thu, 01 Feb 2007

[miningmx.com] -- HERAEUS, a precious metals refining company, is commissioning a platinum refinery plant in South Africa to supply material for autocatalysts, said Glyn Lewis, CEO of Northam Platinum, which will supply the plant.

“It’s going to be built in stages, this is a very preliminary stage, where platinum and palladium will be put through this refinery to go directly into the autocat Port Elizabeth (PE) market,” Lewis told reporters at Northam’s interim results presentation.

South Africa’s automotive industry is based at the harbour city of Port Elizabeth. Platinum and palladium are used in chemical packs in motor exhausts to scrub out polluting gases.

The intention is to grow the refinery into a fully fledged operation taking in 400,000 oz of platinum a year, securing more supply from junior producers, Lewis said.

Heraeus was not immediately available for comment.

The initial capacity will be just big enough to cater for material from Northam, which produced 180,623 oz of the four platinum group elements in the six months to end-December. In the full year to June 2006, it churned out 361.600 oz.

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Northam’s platinum output in the interim period was 3,705 kg and palladium 1,280 kg.

Northam’s concentrate will go to Germany, where it will be treated and then returned to the South African refinery to be made ready for the autocatalyst industry.

Once the plant is fully developed with the remaining two stages, concentrate will be fully processed locally.

Northam has a long-standing supply relationship with Heraeus and the terms it offers are less onerous than those offered by the major platinum producers domestically to refine concentrate delivered by junior companies, Lewis said.

Heraeus also markets part of Northam’s platinum production. Heraeus is a private precious metals and technology group based in Hanau, Germany.