Valterra Platinum highlights hydrogen as a coming demand driver for PGMs

Valterra Platinum used its 2025 annual reporting suite, published in late March 2026, to make the case that hydrogen represents one of the more durable long-term demand drivers for the metals it mines, stating that "the hydrogen economy is set to be a broad demand sector with strong growth" despite near-term challenges in scaling the technology. The company said platinum and iridium-containing PEM electrolysers can produce clean hydrogen from renewable electricity, while platinum-containing fuel cells already play a role in stationary power and can power both light and heavy-duty fuel-cell vehicles.

Partnerships rather than promises

Rather than relying only on industry-wide demand forecasts, Valterra pointed to concrete commercial commitments: a long-term strategic partnership with TotalEnergies South Africa, and a separate multi-year research and development partnership with Johnson Matthey and Sibanye-Stillwater aimed at developing next-generation PGM-enabled hydrogen technologies. The company framed its own role in hydrogen as part of a broader narrative in which South Africa's PGM sector supports the global transition to a lower-carbon economy by supplying the catalysts that cleaner technologies require.

Managing expectations after an earlier hype cycle

The statement came against a backdrop of tempered expectations for hydrogen-linked PGM demand. Earlier, more bullish industry forecasts from 2022 had suggested hydrogen could eventually consume well over a million ounces of platinum annually; more recent independent estimates from the World Platinum Investment Council put actual hydrogen-related platinum demand at under 200,000 ounces as of 2024, rising toward roughly 900,000 ounces by 2030 on some projections, a meaningful but still comparatively modest share of the roughly 7.5 million ounces of PGMs the world consumes each year.

For Valterra, emphasising hydrogen alongside its core autocatalyst and jewellery markets served a strategic purpose: reassuring investors that demand for platinum would not simply fade as electric vehicles gradually erode combustion-engine sales. Whether hydrogen fulfils its promise at anything like the scale once forecast remains uncertain, but Valterra's willingness to attach its name, and real commercial partnerships, to the technology reflected a producer trying to diversify the demand story underpinning its production decisions, including the underground expansion it was simultaneously pursuing at Mogalakwena. Independent analysts cautioned that hydrogen's contribution would likely remain a secondary factor in PGM pricing for several more years, even as they agreed the direction of travel supported Valterra's broader argument that platinum's long-term demand base was widening rather than narrowing.

Sources

• Mining Weekly: Hydrogen set to be broad demand, strong growth sector, Valterra Platinum highlights, 30 Mar 2026

Photo: A hydrogen fuel cell bus, the kind of vehicle Valterra sees as a future source of platinum demand. Syced, Wikimedia Commons, CC0.