Summary of the Discussion

During the discussion, the round table participants agreed that problems around the production and use of PGM metals can be divided into four groups:

1. Environmental and social problems of PGM production;

2. Demand and supply tensions;

3. Recycling problems;

4. Dispersion during use.

1. Environmental and Social Problems of PGM production

It was emphasized that not only Russian production should be taken into account. The roundtable initiative should therefore involve representatives from the other production countries, notably South Africa , the US and Canada .

The old and outdated production facilities in   Russia  caused serious environmental and social problems in the past, but the substantial improvements that are being made today should be recognised. It still is difficult to find public information on Norilsk Nickel, but Mr. Berlin (Norilsk Nickel) convinced the participants that the situation will drastically improve in the near future as the result of changed legislation, modern management and the implementation of ISO 14001.

2. Demand and Supply Tensions

There is no evidence for an immediate scarcity problem of PGM. There are, however, one reason for avoiding scarcity:

New technical applications of PGM may cause sudden and unpredictable demand increases and, as a result, tensions between demand and supply;

Such short time scarcity can lead to substantial price volatilities, with distorting effects on PGM-mining and PGM-applications.

3. Recycling Problems

There was agreement that the open cycle character of PGM use for consumer application is the cause of substantial losses of PGM that is no longer available for use. As the catalytic converter is the most important open cycle application, the participants felt the need to improve the management of recycling PGMs from catalytic converters. There was no agreement yet on the desirable paths to follow. There was no full support for any of the action proposals such as harmonising the ELV directive, disassembling catalytic converters before export or other restrictions to exports. Here we signal a need for more systematic discussion in the future. A majority of the participants, however, appear to agree that such a discussion should be based on better data than those that are available today, especially in the field of material flows of end-of-live consumer products (like ELV-cars): there is a need to create a reliable database on these issues 

4.Dispersion During Use

The issue of dispersion of PGM was not really discussed during the roundtable meeting. Although no signs of direct acute risks of PGM dispersion are known, there appears to be agreement that, from a precautionary point of view, uncontrolled dispersion into the environment should be avoided.