Iron ore deliveries from Australia, Brazil extend declines on week

Northam Platinum is advancing large-scale renewable energy and energy storage deployment, with a plan to turn its Eland mine into South Africa’s first PGM mine operated entirely on renewable energy. Chief Executive Officer Paul Dunne stated at the annual results briefing on August 28 that Eland not only has the conditions to switch to fully green power, but has also achieved a positive water balance. The company plans to phase out external water sources by the end of this decade, moving the mine toward a truly low-carbon, low-water-dependence "green mine" model.

In its latest annual results briefing, Northam Platinum unusually identified artificial intelligence, data storage, electronics and robotics as key new sources of future platinum-group metals (PGM) demand, sending a notable signal to the PGM market. Chief Executive Officer Paul Dunne said the company remains bullish on platinum, rhodium, iridium and ruthenium, citing declining supply from South African mines and still-supportive autocatalyst demand, alongside growing new applications in AI and high-tech industries. He noted that the PGM market remains in supply deficit, while industrial demand stays robust driven by emerging applications.

A research team at Utkal University in India has published a review on organoiridium(III) anticancer complexes, focusing on how Schiff base and oxime ligands affect the biological activity, cytotoxicity and mechanisms of action of Ir(III) complexes. Platinum-based drugs such as cisplatin, carboplatin and oxaliplatin have demonstrated that platinum-group metals (PGMs) can be developed into large-scale clinical therapeutics. However, nephrotoxicity, drug resistance and non-selective damage to healthy cells are driving metal-drug research to extend toward other PGMs including ruthenium (Ru), iridium (Ir) and osmium (Os).