Oh, the irony of it..

The Natural Philosopher · 2008-02-07T02:14:16+00:00

We need platinum to make low emission cars.To make platinum, takes power.~To generate power, S Africa needs to build coal power stations. Thus increasing emissions of CO2.Or go nuclear.. ;-)---------------------------------------------------Not just price of platinum to blowBy John DizardPublished: February 3 2008 22:24 | Last updated: February 3 2008 22:24Right at the moment when we really didn?t need another gasket to blow in the economic-financial engine, one has. This time it isn?t a leveraged, insured, hedged, guaranteed, recapitalised, disclosed, rated, structured, financial ?asset?.It?s a real world process: the mining and refining of platinum. Leverage, or the dependence of a lot of stuff on a little bit of stuff, is a property not only of balance sheets, but of industrial processes. Without sufficient platinum, it is not possible to produce automobiles, trucks, and diesel engines that can be sold in North America, Europe, Japan, and much of the rest of the world. The catalytic converters required by environmental laws do not work without it. And right now, we are on a clear track to running short of the platinum needed to maintain, let alone increase, the production of gasoline and diesel engines.The problem is the chronic electricity shortages in South Africa. All of the greenhouse gases produced last month by the conferees in Davos did not result in this problem being ?addressed?, as their organisers would put it. Now the only way to maintain existing clean air standards in the developed world is to build and operate, as rapidly as possible, a series of new coal-fired power stations to supply the country?s mines and refineries.That won?t happen until 2012 at the earliest. In the meantime, the already absurdly high platinum price (up more than 40 per cent from a year ago), probably has to rise even higher to squeeze demand out of less critical applications such as jewellery. You can expect some fallback in the current price as you read headlines about...

Feb 07, 2008 40 Replies

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magwitch 18 years ago

Indeed, some years ago my firm (medical publishing) went to Johannesburg for the World Aids Conference.

One of my friends went on safari and had to hire a car and drive all the way to where the big game park was. When I asked how people get around there generally he said that they'd attempted to set up a public transport bus system, but it only lasted a short while as many of the bus drivers were shot dead.

Apparently they been taking trade away from the private combi vans...

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