Each year, about 90 tonnes of platinum, 300 tonnes of palladium and 30 tonnes of rhodium are used globally for catalytic converters – both diesel and gasoline. But only 30-to-50 percent of this comes from recycling.
Extracting precious metals from spent diesel catalysts in particular is by no means a clean business. Smelters started getting a bad rap with the result that they began refusing to take in diesel catalytic converters. This has opened massive opportunities for companies like Regenx Tech Corp’s (TSX.V: RGX) (OTCQB: RGXTF). Their new processing plant is a fantastic example of CleanTech that aims to make the recycling of platinum and palladium more efficient.
With carbon emissions and ESG standards now regarded as major risks for new mining companies, the recycling of end-products and re-mining of old tailings dams and mining dumps are looking more and more attractive for new start-up companies.
Exploration and the establishment of new mines are certainly no longer the only way to extract minerals and metals. Greenfield exploration and mining projects have become more expensive, a lot riskier and its environmental footprint is expanding as more projects come online to satisfy increased global demand.
On the other hand, recycling projects in Europe, North America and Canada, and re-mining operations, especially of PGM’s and gold in South Africa, have ensured a steady flow of dividends to its shareholders, while, at the same time, have not burnt holes in the pockets of its owners in terms of operational costs.
What has become known as CleanTech products, are a lot more environmentally friendly than traditional mining, while being a pivot around which the circular economy operates.
The costs of finding new deposits and mining them have increased exponentially over the years. At the same time improved mining methods and new technology made it possible for recycling companies to extract the same minerals and metals at a fraction of what big extractive companies have to dish out to keep their projects operational.
The problem with recycling minerals, metals and waste items like tires until very recently, was not only the amount of carbon the smelters and processing plants spewed out in the recycling process, but also their insatiable demand for a steady supply of energy. Technology has addressed this problem to a large extent.
Regenx well positioned in circular economy
Regenx is positioned for growth in the CleanTech sector through the development and commercialization of its environmentally friendly processing technologies for the recovery of precious metals. Initial focus is the extraction of platinum and palladium from diesel catalytic converters with its business partner Davis Recycling.
Close to 80% of the world’s palladium and 50% of the world’s platinum are used in catalytic converters annually. Worldwide, catalytic converters require more than 13 million oz of platinum and palladium per year to meet the exhaust emission regulations for gasoline.
According to Pendura, there will be a mind boggling twenty-seven million spent diesel catalytic converters per year in the USA alone. Even more outrageous, is that only 30% of those converters will eventually be recycled.
It means that there are unthinkable amounts of platinum and palladium locked up in these catalytic converters. Pendura says that close to 50% of the annual global platinum and palladium production is used in diesel catalytic converters.
“Processing technology that will be able to extract precious metals like platinum and palladium in a CleanTech environment will be well received on North American soil,” says Pendura.
This is ground-breaking technology, and Regenx is first to the market. Their commercial plant, once in full swing, will produce approximately ten tonnes of spent converters per day and revenues are expected to exceed USD 100-million. These are phenomenal numbers from a business perspective, considering that the recycling of converters is currently (with old technology) worth more than USD 25-billion.
Not only that, but there is bound to be a great pile of spent diesel converters lying around with nowhere to go, and Regenx and Davis Recycling plans to mop these up.
PGMs are notoriously difficult and costly to mine, and extremely complex to process. Its environmental impacts are not always mitigated effectively. Unless, of course, it is recycled from used diesel convertors or reclaimed from historic mining waste dumps.
The green economy has opened-up numerous opportunities for innovative solutions to solve environmental problems. Regenx and Davis Recycling, its business partner, recently tested a 100L pilot plant, and has shipped it to Tennessee in the upper south of the USA.
Davis Recycling has put in place the required infrastructure to allow for a smooth transition to an operating facility. This has included the addition of more processing equipment that will convert the raw catalytic converters into the powdered feedstock required by the Regenx system. The new equipment allows Davis to process feedstock exceeding the commercial plant’s anticipated capacity.
Over the last decade, PGMs have been consistently short on supply. The world’s mining operations alone cannot meet or sustain global demand for PGMs. This has created space for recycling to help meet the shortfall.
With more focus on climate change, biodiversity, circularity, rehabilitation and ESG standards, research and development in the circular economy, especially in the recycling sector, will become critical in the economic transition.
