May 09, 2018 Guest(s): Donald Sadoway John F. Elliott Professor of Materials Chemistry, MIT
Materials Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"I think [the mining industry] has learned lessons from what happened with silver with the loss of halide film, and they realized that the antidote to change is to invent new applications," Sadoway told Kitco News on the sidelines of the Mines & Money Conference in New York.
"You can't fight the change. The change will come, and it's going to be based on the economics," he said.
On the platinum group metals (PGM), Sadoway said that fears of their obsolescence are somewhat premature, as electric vehicles still have many hurdles to overcome before they become mainstream.
"Right now, the electric vehicles haven't really taken off because quite frankly, they're inferior to the vehicles that they're going to replace. But if they get the range and the battery life that people would expect, then we'll see them take off, but until then, I don't think the platinum people have a lot to fear," he said.