THE concept of value-addition has become a key feature of industry
and business in the 1990s, reports Next Chimica, of
Johannesburiron ore beneficiation project swazilandg.
Although the South African mining industry has been adding value to
its mineral resources for decades through the mining and refining
of precious metals, including platinum-group metals (PGMs), the
manufacture of precious-metal chemicals from those metals has
historically largely been undertaken by manufacturers outside South
Africa.
Over the past decade Next Chimica has further extended the
value-added chain for precious metals in South Africa through the
manufacture of precious-metal chemicals from the pure refined
metals.
Precious metals are primarily used as industrial materials in such
diverse areas as electroplating, electronics, mirrors,
autocatalysts, cancer treatment drugs and catalysts in the
petrochemical industry.
These applications often require precious metals in a chemical form
as raw material, rather than in metallic form.
The development by the company of the manufacturing base for
precious-metal chemicals has required the development of in-house
skills and expertise to compete in the competitive and specialised
international market for the products.
In its manufacturing facility in Germiston, on the East Rand, the
company now routinely manufactures some 43 of the most important
precious-metal chemicals, and has the further capability to supply
a wider range of specialised precious-metal chemicals on a
custom-manufactured basis to specific customer requirements.
The company supplies these products to customers in South Africa,
and is one of the largest South African exporters of precious-metal
chemicals, routinely exporting products to customers in more than
17 countries worldwide.