[SMM Precious Metals Express]

The most-traded GFEX palladium futures contract, PD2610, rose 8% intraday to close at 329.65 yuan/g, up 8.51%.

[SMM Express] Future Metals Ltd. is progressing optimisation of its Panton Platinum Group Metals (PGM) Project in Western Australia's Kimberley region following a comprehensive review of historical studies and its 2023 Scoping Study. The company has updated the project's Mineral Resource Estimate to 82.3 million tonnes at 1.6 g/t platinum equivalent (PtEq), containing 4.24 million ounces of PtEq, using a net smelter return methodology that incorporates platinum, palladium, gold, nickel and chromite. The company plans to update its Scoping Study by assessing the use of Panoramic Resources' nearby Savannah processing plant, which could reduce estimated pre-production capital costs by approximately 28% compared with constructing a new processing facility. Future Metals also highlighted Panton's unusually high platinum content, with platinum accounting for around 45–50% of its PGM basket, significantly above many Australian PGM projects. The optimisation of the Panton Project reflects growing interest in developing stable, Western sources of platinum group metals amid evolving global supply behaviours. A higher platinum weighting, combined with lower projected development costs and continued demand from automotive, industrial and hydrogen applications, could enhance the project's long-term competitiveness in the global PGM market.

[SMM Express] Automotive recycling specialists are highlighting the environmental and economic benefits of catalytic converter recycling as industries increasingly adopt circular economy practices. Catalytic converters contain valuable platinum group metals (PGMs), including platinum, palladium and rhodium, which can be recovered and refined for reuse in automotive, electronics and other industrial applications. Recycling these components reduces reliance on primary mining, lowering energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and industrial waste associated with extracting PGMs from ore. As millions of vehicles reach the end of their service life each year, efficient recovery of catalytic converters also helps divert valuable materials from landfills while supporting more sustainable resource management. Recovered PGMs retain their chemical properties through repeated refining, enabling manufacturers to secure secondary supplies of critical metals and improve supply chain resilience. As resource efficiency become increasingly important across the automotive sector, catalytic converter recycling is expected to remain a key secondary source of platinum, palladium and rhodium. Greater recovery rates could help supplement primary mine supply, supporting circularity while improving the long-term availability of critical PGMs for industrial applications.