Mintek, a Johannesburg-based mining technology developer, and Gold Fields are throwing their weight behind Project AuTEK, which is aimed at developing industrial uses for gold.
In the past, gold producers have not spent enough time and money developing new products using the metal, says Gold Fields Chairman Christopher Thompson.
“Through this project we aim to explore the potential for gold and gold alloys to be used in catalytic and other new applications,” he says. “We believe there is substantial potential for gold to replace existing products and to create new ones.”
AuTEK also has the support of Mintek and is affiliated with: the Universities of Cape Town and Witwatersrand; the Dpartement de catalyse et chimie applique in France; and the University of Leiden in The Netherlands.
To date, AuTEK has focused on the use of gold in catalysts for the chemical industry. But the entry of Gold Fields into the partnership will now allow AuTEK to expand its research to include other applications, such as the use of gold in microscopic devices employed in science and medicine.
“While these types of devices might only use a few hundred milligrams of gold apiece, their potential market runs to tens of millions of units, and they could end up being a significant consumer of gold,” says Michael Cortie, manager of the Mintek’s physical metallurgy division. “Gold has diverse useful and interesting technological properties. However, it has only recently been discovered that it has great potency as a catalyst for many chemical reactions of commercial and environmental interest.”
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