As vehicle and energy technology evolves, so do mining-sector relationships. New methods require new materials, and new solutions, to ensure they get to market.
Historically, major automakers have secured long-term supply deals with miners to ensure access to materials. Today, partnerships in the PGM sector remain especially vital, due to complex value chains, evolving technologies, and shifting geopolitical and ESG dynamics.
Partnerships can take various forms – financial, equity-linked, or recycling-focused – and involve OEMs, refiners, fabricators and hydrogen tech firms. While challenges remain, government and industry support will be key to making these collaborations effective.
The relationship between the automotive industry and miners of platinum-group metals goes back to the 1960s, to the days when the USA’s Clean-Air Act banned hazardous air pollutants, leading to the development of platinum-based catalytic converters in motor-vehicle exhaust systems.
This then led to the signing of the offtake agreements that financed the expansion of the PGM sector in South Africa.
In 2026, besides platinum’s applications for catalytic convertors, other PGMs like iridium are being found to have key uses in technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells.
A session at the Investing in African Mining Indaba 2026 event in Cape Town heard how PGM partnerships would become an important part of the modern energy and mobility dispensation, as well to progress Africa’s role in the energy transition.
J.J. Messner de Latour, purchasing sector lead at the Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), said it was to the sector’s credit that ESG had always underpinned its partnerships.
“The evolution of the PGM sector has been in lockstep with the automotive sector,” he said. “In many respects, sustainability and ESG have been an indelible part of journey for PGMs.”
He noted it was in the interest of automotive-sector customers to establish offtake agreements to guarantee price, secure supply and encourage responsible sourcing.
Offtake agreements are an arrangement between a producer and buyer to purchase or sell portions of future production.
De Latour pointed out that expectations on the automotive sector for ESG compliance were becoming stronger as focus grew on ensuring responsible supply chains.
“Resilient supply chains are built on transparency and good governance,” he said.
“A business with a social licence to operate will have continuity of supply.”
He recommended that offtake agreements be approached as a partnership, instead of a customer-supplier command relationship.
In terms of current developments in the OEM sector, Henk de Hoop, CEO of SFA (Oxford) pointed out that the Chinese car sector had begun exporting massive volumes of vehicles into the rest of the world.
“These new vehicles have to be catalysed,” he said. “That makes it crucial for PGM miners to build relationships with the Chinese motor sector.”
Another looming trend is the possible launch of a new hydrogen-energy economy. If this takes off, there will be a need for iridium which goes into proton-exchange membranes in hydrogen fuel cells.
De Hoop pointed out that while iridium was a small component, it was still a very important ingredient.
“The problem is that only around 259 000 ounces of iridium are produced every per year, and about 80% are committed to customers already, through offtake agreements,” he said.
This made the structuring of those agreements especially important and rendered relationships crucial to the new-energy economy.
He also flagged a need for industry to start working on new applications.
David Jollie, global head of sales for Valterra Platinum, said the key to partnerships in the sector was communication, and shaping clients’ expectations.
“In a less liquid market, you may not actually need a certain metal,” he said. “What you really need is access to metal. Offtake agreements give you that comfort”.
He said he liked his customers to have diversity of supply.
“I’m happy to be their biggest supplier,” he said. “But I don’t want to be their only supplier. That comes with risk.”
Lars Reifschläger is head of supply-chain management at Siemens Energy Electrolyzer Manufacturing, one of the first gigawatt-scale electrolyzer factories in the world, fast-tracking sustainable manufacturing for the renewable hydrogen economy.
He said that South Africa would always remain an important PGM supplier for his business.
“We look forward to long-term partnerships in South Africa,” he said. “And we see more opportunity than challenge.”
De Latour, of IRMA, had the last word in the session, warning that, “we must ensure that the materials that go into sustainable technology have a market that is itself sustainable”.
- Investing in African Mining Indaba 2026 runs until February 12th at the CTICC in Cape Town, South Africa.