Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Richard Stewart has criticised the absence of premiums or credits for producers of green metals based on their downstream environmental benefits. Speaking from the company's Keliber mine in Finland, he argued that original equipment manufacturers prioritise the cheapest options over cleaner ones without regulatory incentives. Stewart called for industry-wide metrics to reward such benefits across the value chain.
Richard Stewart, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater, stated in an interview with Daily Maverick that incentives for green metals remain limited. He compared the situation to premiums paid for free-range eggs at Woolworths due to ethical concerns, noting no equivalent exists for low-carbon mining products.
"If you took, for example, lithium hydroxide, whether it’s produced in Finland using renewable energy with very little transport footprint or if it’s produced in China, the OEMs have no incentive to buy the cleaner option," Stewart said. "They will buy the cheapest or the most available."
Stewart made these remarks during a visit to the Keliber mine, Europe's only lithium mine, which runs mostly on renewable energy. Lithium is essential for batteries in electric vehicles and solar storage. He advocated for credits beyond traditional scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, considering full value chain impacts.
As an example, he cited platinum group metals (PGMs), which Sibanye produces in South Africa for autocatalysts that curb harmful exhaust gases. "If you produce PGMs that go into autocats that reduce emissions by X, you can come up with a metric... you can get a credit of X," Stewart explained.
While the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) tariffs carbon-intensive imports and Australia offers grants for green iron, fossil fuel subsidies reached $7 trillion globally in 2022 according to the IMF. Stewart urged standardisation to incentivise cleaner production amid the energy transition.