The surge of the hydrogen economy, the need to recycle, halving Scope 3 emissions through iron-ore-linked green steelmaking, assisting South Africa to create new industries, and becoming a one-stop material solutions provider, were among the issues discussed by Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani in a wide-ranging interview .
Cutifani expressed appreciation for the leadership and support that Anglo receives from the South Africa government, described Anglo as being a strong advocate and supporter of South Africa “in every sense of the word”, and said the backing for its solar-linked hydrogen project in Limpopo has been “very, very good”.
Cutifani drew attention to:
- the importance of South Africa’s global leadership position in platinum group metals (PGMs) beneficiation, at a time when the world spotlight is on the catalysis role of PGMs in global decarbonisation;
- this being achieved against the background of hydrogen possibly fuelling almost 20% of the world’s energy by 2050, which would make South Africa one of the centres of the hydrogen industry on the basis of its PGMs at this stage being the best known catalysers for creating hydrogen and for turning hydrogen into water, which is basically what happens when hydrogen is used to fuel vehicles;
- the opportunity for Anglo to work with the South African government to create a coherent world-leading regulatory environment for green hydrogen, decarbonisation and climate-change mitigation, in the absence of any jurisdiction currently striking him as the coherent leader in this space, where there are industrial development and other commercial opportunities;
- the potential for green hydrogen to halve Anglo’s own Scope 3 emissions in downstream steelmaking, owing to about 45% of the company’s Scope 3 emissions being iron-ore linked, and the high quality of its iron-ore being very attractive to green steelmakers;
- the promise made to Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe that he will be the first person to sit in the driver’s seat of the world’s biggest hydrogen fuel cell truck, which the company hopes to have on the ground in Limpopo this year;
- the company retaining its technical innovation base in South Africa, where it can help to bring about new industries that could lower South African high level of unemployment;
- Anglo Platinum having 50% of the world’s non-Russian PGM processing capacity, and the company being the PGM industry’s most significant beneficiator in that it takes material all the way to saleable products in five key steps, with the technologies applied all home-grown South African technologies;
- the need for Anglo to become a lot better in the recycling of all of its products as it plays a role in the circular economy; and
- the company’s grand vision of being a one-stop material solutions provider to the global market, where demand strength has become significantly apparent.
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Further details of this interview can be found via the link.