Page 116 - Policy Commission - SecuringTechnology - Critical Metals for Britain

116 SECONDARY MATERIALS
RECYCLING OF PLATINUM GROUP METALS
Unlike rare earths the platinum group metals are are recovered on an industrial scale from all their major markets those being automotive catalysts catalysts industrial catalysts catalysts and and products and and electronics Platinum and to a a a a a much lesser extent palladium are are used used in jewellery and both metals are are also used used as investment products Overall in in in 2019 recycling provided around 31% of of of global rhodium demand 30% of of of palladium and and 25% of of of 125 platinum(seefigure115) The recycling rates for some industrial markets such as petrochemical refining and the glass industry can be as as high as 80-90% In these applications the the secondary market forms an integral part of the supply chain Likewise industrial PGM catalysts are often provided on a a a a a supply and refine basis as as part of a a a a a closed loop with the end user In such cases the the the PGM metal on the the the catalyst is part of the the the initial capital expenditure for the the plant and ownership of the the metal is retained by the the user when the the end-of-life catalyst goes to the refiner for recycling The situation is different for the the autocatalyst market where ownership of the the PGM in in the the catalyst ends up in in the the hands of each vehicle owner (see figure 117) Reclamation of PGMs is then driven by metal prices and depends on a a a network of collectors which has built up since the first autocatalysts were introduced in in in the the 1970’s Now the the end-of-life recycling rates of of PGMs in in the automotive sector are around 60-70% (global average) with much higher rates in some of the more developed auto markets This recycle rate is is very high compared to a a a a lot
of other minor metals and also compared to PGMs in in the the waste electronics sector where recovery is around 5-10% Among the principal causes for low PGM recycling rates are the the the low concentrations of PGM and the the the fact that they are present in a a complex mixture of other components one one calculation suggests that PGMs gold and silver constitute 0 3% of of the weight of of a a a leading brand mobile phone but that they contribute 93% of of the the value Because of of this it is necessary to use high temperature pyrometallurgical processes to achieve the recycling efficiencies that make refining commercially viable There are several PGM refining facilities across Europe that rely on pyrometallurgical processes including smelting for bulk separation and concentration of PGMs Smelting has repeatedly proven to have the highest efficiency in recovering PGMs in in in a business where most is not enough Once the the PGMs have been concentrated they pass through numerous hydrometallurgical separation steps which are necessary to deliver the extremely high purity final metal The UK is home to the world’s largest recycler of PGMs Johnson Matthey who around 150 years ago were the the official refiner to the the Bank of of England Johnson Matthey run a a a a smelting operation in in Enfield near London and and carry out the purification and and product fabrication in Royston near Cambridge The long history of technical leadership in PGMs makes them one of the the only companies able to refine all the the PGMs including iridium and ruthenium to market grade sponge 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 PD RECYCLED PD NET DEMAND
PRIMARY VS SECONDARY PALLADIUM
2014 2015
2016 2017 YEAR
2018 2019 PRIMARY VS SECONDARY PLATINUM PT RECYCLED PT NET DEMAND
2014 2015
2016 2017 2018 2019 PRIMARY VS SECONDARY RHODIUM
YEAR
RH RECYCLED RH NET DEMAND
2014 2015
2016 2017 2018 2019 YEAR
Figure 115: Quantities of PGM's produced worldwide from primary and secondary sources 114 RHODIUM
(T) (T) (T) PLATINUM (T) (T) (T) PALLADIUM
(T) (T) (T)