Copper kills bugs but enlivens Friedland's metals message

One of the reasons Robert Friedland, chairman of Ivanhoe Mines, is considered one of the best presenters in the mining sector is that he brings the subject alive by looking at what's going on in the world in terms of technology and tells you what it means for metals. So it was that the annual Mines & Money Hong Kong conference was enlivened with another tour de force from him yesterday as he looked at the metals required by trends such as urbanisation along with current and future technologies.

With 60 per cent of urban pollution coming from motor vehicles, this is one of the pressures driving the "electric" revolution for cars which will see cars powered either by electricity, or hybrid petrol-electric cars, or by hydrogen fuel cells. "As they get cleaner they are going to need more platinum and palladium," says Friedland.

China is producing 18 million cars a year, and the current 10-year plan envisages annual production of 60 million cars. If 10 per cent of these cars have hydrogen fuel cells, using one ounce of platinum per tonne of car, "that will exceed the world's current platinum production".

Fuel cells are not only being used in cars. Japan has announced that 10 per cent of houses are to be equipped with fuel cells the size of a small refrigerator providing the entire home's heat and electricity needs. There is a 59,000-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cell station in Seoul that can power 59,000 homes. And later this year you will be able to recharge your mobile phones with a hydrogen fuel cell recharger - Kraftwerk - that runs on lighter fuel. Then there's the huge amounts of copper that will be required by the high-speed trains being rolled out by China and Japan. Also, while older cars use about 40 pounds of copper, hi-tech models are even more copper-intensive - the latest Lexus has some 62 electric motors.