Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, and Furuya Metal Co., Ltd. announces that three parties concluded 'joint development contract' for the purpose of developing Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) recycling technology using such scraps as used catalyst for feed material.

The three parties aim at early commencement of the most competitive PGM recycling business by applying Mitsubishi Materials Corporation's copper smelting technologies and Furuya Metal's processing know-how of PGMs, while combining Mitsubishi Corporation's PGMs dealing and hedging expertise.

PGMs consist of platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, and osmium, which have wide variety of applications such as chemical catalyst, auto catalyst, glass making furnace, electrical parts, magnetic memory devices and so on because of their excellent feature of heat and corrosion resistance, as well as their high catalytic performance and unique magnetic feature.

There are few materials or technologies that can serve as alternatives of PGMs, and therefore demand for PGMs is expected to increase for many years to come. Production site of PGMs is unevenly distributed, and South Africa accounts for most of world' production. Production quantity is quite limited and PGMs are recognized as one of the most scarce metals resources.

Considering rise in PGMs demand from new fields including fuel cell and hard disc in addition, the three parties have reached the consensus that demand for secondary PGM source from scrap will rapidly increase, having led the three parties to conclude the contract.