The evolving role of PGMs: sustainability in the market context

Introduction

Of the six platinum group metals (PGMs), five are in widespread industrial use: platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, and iridium. As well as homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts for chemical synthesis, platinum, ruthenium and iridium also see significant uptake in electrochemical processes. However, the inclusion of PGMs on critical mineral/critical raw material lists is generally driven by their use as catalysts in automotive emissions control (catalytic converters) and in proton exchange membrane electrolysers and fuel cells for the production and use of clean hydrogen. The latter is viewed as presenting significant demand growth potential for the future.
But the industrial applications of PGMs go beyond this. An exhaustive discussion is beyond the scope of this article, but includes:

• Production of high-quality display glass and fibreglass is reliant on PGMs to provide the necessary durability to equipment in contact with corrosive molten glass.
• The hottest part of jet engines, despite being formed from superalloys, must still be protected with a platinum coating to achieve the necessary performance, while aviation and automotive spark plugs rely on PGM electrodes for performance and durability.
• PGMs are required for data encoding within hard disks, which are the most cost-effective technology for data storage and are used in all data centres.
• Iridium crucibles are used to grow single crystals used in applications such as signal filters for mobile phones and laser gain media.

The ubiquity of PGMs in the modern industrial economy seems extraordinary in light of their relative geological rarity and their consequent value: estimated mined supply stood at just under 430 tonnes in 2025 across all five metals (1) – of which, around 65% from southern Africa (2). A kilogramme of palladium (at the time of writing, the lowest-priced of the five metals) is valued at around $52,000 (USD), while a kilogramme of rhodium (currently the highest-priced PGM) costs about $370,000.

Yet PGMs possess unique properties which often make them the only viable material for a particular process or technology. Counterintuitively, this may be driven by economics: in employing a PGM rather than a less suitable material, operational costs are lowered such that the process or technology becomes more, rather than less, cost effective. To enable this, PGMs are in general used highly efficiently, since any wastage can negatively impact the economics of a process or technology. Constant efforts to lower metal intensity are a feature of many PGM applications (within the PGM industry, we refer to this as ‘thrifting’) and may drive the reduction of catalyst loadings within many processes as they mature. For example, this has been a substantial feature of PGM use in catalytic converters over the last five decades, mitigating the ratcheting effect of increasingly stringent automotive emissions regulation on metal intensity and demand growth.

In light of expected growth in clean hydrogen demand, a desire to derisk supply chains by avoiding further reliance on these precious metals seems understandable. But PGMs have been in widespread industrial use for over five decades, during which period their consumption by the automotive sector scaled up to 375 tonnes annually. Clearly, there is more to the sustainability of PGM use than meets the eye.

Supply chain maturity

Automotive use of PGMs in catalytic converters started in the early 1970s (1), but the beginnings of PGM application in electronics, chemicals production, and petroleum refining date back earlier to the mid-20th century. PGM supply chains became established during this period and are concentrated in the West and Japan because the earliest industrial markets for the PGMs were Europe, North America, and Japan, as correlated with technology development. China was much later to emerge as an industrial user of PGMs (it developed initially as a jewellery market) and has established its own, highly regionalised supply chains, but it remains reliant on imports of PGMs.

These supply chains, which encompass processing, refining, recycling, and fabrication of a broad range of PGM-based materials and catalysts, are now mature in the Global North and are geared to serving the diverse nature of PGM usage across the globe (3). Surprisingly, even today, China plays virtually no role in global PGM supply chains or processing – in sharp contrast to other critical metals, including nickel, copper and cobalt.

The role of recycling

The PGMs are eminently recyclable and in this their high value is an advantage, since it incentivises circular practices even in the absence of regulation to enforce recycling. Indeed, recycling of PGMs and the reuse of secondary PGMs are now routine practice. Most PGM recycling (including virtually all iridium and ruthenium recycling) takes place in a true ‘closed loop’, where ownership of the metal is retained throughout and the recovered metal is reused within the same facility or application. When PGM demand is reported by Johnson Matthey and others, it is reported after (net of) any closed-loop recycling.

As a result, closed-loop recycling is invisible in reported market data and is therefore often missed. To address this misperception, last year Johnson Matthey for the first time published an estimate for closed loop recycling volumes, showing just how large they are at around 490 tonnes annually across the five PGMs (4). Closed loops have the effect of building up inventory within PGM applications and making them increasingly self-reliant. Notable sectors in this regard include glassmaking and petrochemicals production, both of which are highly reliant on PGMs but for which this reliance is largely served by retained inventory, rather than ongoing infusions of ‘fresh’ metal.

Smaller amounts of recycling happen in ‘open loops’, where ownership is not retained and any metal recovered can be sold for profit. This highlights another feature of PGMs: once refined, secondary (or recycled) metal is physically and chemically indistinguishable from primary (virgin) PGMs and they are fungible, i.e. traded as equivalents. Total PGM market supplies thus include both primary and secondary metal from open-loop recycling, with the latter now constituting around a quarter of the metal placed on the market every year, an estimated 148 tonnes in 2025, vs ±430 tonnes mined supply (1).

Considering both open loops and closed loops, it can be seen that recycling is a substantial feature of PGM market dynamics. Over half of gross PGM usage every year is now met by secondary metal (4). This obviously has considerable impact on the sustainability of PGM use, aspects of which have been addressed elsewhere – see for example our previous discussion of LCA (5).

How critical are PGMs?

‘Criticality’ of materials is the intersection of two parameters: the first is the economic importance (or how reliant economic activity is on availability) of the material, and the second is the degree of supply risk. The latter rests on an assessment of supply sufficiency relative to demand, risk of supply interruption from climate or conflict impact on the supply base, and geopolitical risk, which is usually stated in terms of the degree of diversification in supply sources. To qualify for inclusion on critical minerals lists requires a high degree of both economic importance and supply risk: either factor alone is insufficient.

The economic importance of PGMs is unquestionable. But the way that supply risk has been assessed for these metals is fraught with misperception and error. To start with, it is often presumed that clean hydrogen demand will drive unsustainable growth in overall demand for PGMs, and platinum and iridium in particular. These demand projections are typically faulty, as they take insufficient account of the impact of both thrifting and recycling (particularly closed-loop recycling of iridium) and therefore tend to dramatically overstate future demand in hydrogen technologies (6). Secondly, they fail to consider the offsetting effect of future declines in other sectors, for example catalytic converter and spark plug demand for PGMs will eventually reduce as battery electric vehicles take increasing share of the vehicle market.

The degree of PGM supply concentration is also overstated, since these assessments are made on the basis of mined supply only, which as discussed above is erroneous for PGMs. Although PGM mining is heavily dependent on South Africa, secondary PGM refining (including closed-loop recycling) is concentrated outside of South Africa, and the large PGM refineries in the UK, US, EU, Japan and Korea serve a substantial proportion of gross global consumption of these metals and have done so for decades. Decades of industrial PGM consumption have now established very large ‘urban mines’ of these metals outside of South Africa.

While geopolitics are outside the scope of this article, the geographical concentration of PGM mining in South Africa should not be viewed in wholly negative terms. Geological deposits of PGMs in South Africa are vast – sufficient for decades at current mining levels, and mining practices in that country are mature and heavily regulated for EHS and labour practices (7). It is important to note that these are not state-owned mines: the major South African PGM mining companies are all publicly listed and owned by their shareholders (8).

It is also worth emphasising that PGM mining is of significant socioeconomic benefit to South Africa, supporting tens of thousands of high-quality jobs in a country where unemployment is a severe problem. The PGM sector is a major earner of export revenue for South Africa, with PGMs accounting for around a quarter of mineral sales in revenue terms (9), meaning continued sales of PGMs are vital to that country and to the furtherance of several UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Concluding remarks

With well-established sources of supply, encompassing both mining and recycling, mature and circular supply chains (which are not reliant on China), the global availability of PGMs for industrial and catalytic applications is well supported. Furthermore, declines in mature PGM markets will help to offset growth in new markets, which will in turn benefit from reductions in metal intensity and growth in closed-loop inventories.

It should be evident that the market dynamics for this class of metals are entirely distinct from other minerals critical to the clean energy transition. The inclusion of PGMs in lists of critical minerals obscures this and has led to a misperception that they should be avoided in R&D in favour of alternatives such as nickel, which are potentially at greater supply risk despite their ‘earth abundance’. If this hampers the efficiency of the process as a whole and the recyclability of the catalyst, the sustainability of doing so must be questioned.

The PGM industry understands the unique opportunity that these metals present. Johnson Matthey in partnership with two of the major PGM mining companies, Valterra Platinum and Sibanye-Stillwater, has recently launched a collaboration to address this opportunity and develop new and impactful PGM-based technologies (10). This underscores that researchers should feel confident to use PGMs in their work if they are the best catalyst for the job.

References and notes

1. Cowley A, et al., Johnson Matthey PGM Market Report, May 2025: 24–30. Accessed 15/03/2026 at PGM market data | Johnson Matthey [https://matthey.com/products-and-markets/pgms-and-circularity/pgm-market-data]
2. Predominantly South African mining, with a small amount of PGM mined in Zimbabwe refined and sold through South Africa.
3. For more information see Johnson Matthey whitepaper, Platinum Group Metal Supply Chains: Mature and Global, 2024. Accessed 15/03/2026 at PGM recent publications | Johnson Matthey [https://matthey.com/products-and-markets/pgms-and-circularity/pgm-markets/pgm-recent-publications]
4. Johnson Matthey whitepaper, Reclaiming the Future: PGM Insights for a Circular Economy, 2025, Accessed 15/03/2026 at PGM recent publications | Johnson Matthey [https://matthey.com/products-and-markets/pgms-and-circularity/pgm-markets/pgm-recent-publications]
5. Facchetti S, Zanotti Gerosa A, Patrick J, Ryan M, The impact of platinum group metal catalysts in fine chemical synthesis, Chemistry Today, Vol. 43(3) – May / June 2025
6. For a better assessment methodology of iridium demand growth for clean hydrogen production, see: Clapp M, Zalitis CM, Ryan M, Perspectives on current and future iridium demand and iridium oxide catalysts for PEM water electrolysis, Catalysis Today, Catalysis Today, Volume 420, 1 August 2023, 114140, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cattod.2023.114140
7. South African Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, Mineral Regulation Overview, accessed on 16 March 2026 https://www.dmre.gov.za/mineral-resources/mineral-petroleum-regulations/overview
8. The Major PGM mining companies: Valterra Platinum, Sibanye-Stillwater, Impala Platinum, Northam Platinum.
9. Statistics South Africa, Mining: Production and sales (Preliminary) December 2025, STATISTICAL RELEASE P2041, 2026
10. Johnson Matthey, Developing the future of platinum group metals, accessed 15 March 2026, https://matthey.com/future-pgms-partnership