Editors

Q&A: 8 Questions With Anglo American’s Benny Oeyen

EditorsMay 06, 2024

Q&A: 8 Questions With Anglo American’s Benny Oeyen

The executive talked about the importance of self-purchasers and how fuel cell electric vehicles are going to fuel demand for platinum.

Anglo American executive Benny Oeyen
Benny Oeyen is Anglo American’s executive head of market development for PGMs (platinum group metals), which include platinum and palladium.
Earlier this year, I had the chance to sit down with Benny Oeyen, Anglo American’s executive head of market development, PGMs (platinum group metals, which include platinum and palladium), to chat about the future of platinum as it pertains to jewelry and fuel cell electric vehicles.

We discussed the importance of people buying platinum jewelry as a little treat for themselves, how much consumers really care about sustainability, and the price of platinum, which sat at $964 an ounce as of press time.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Please also note, this interview was conducted prior to the news that BHP Group Inc. had made an unsolicited, and ultimately rejected, bid for Anglo American that would have involved Anglo spinning off its platinum business, as well as its iron ore operations in South Africa.

Michelle Graff: Anglo now has this partnership with Stuller for supplying responsibly mined platinum grain to its retailers. For me, this seems like a tipping point, of sorts, for sustainability.

Sometimes when we’re talking sustainability, we know customers in New York or San Francisco might feel that way but it’s not always representative of the rest of the country. When I saw that Stuller is doing this, I thought there must be a real call for it. Can you speak to that?

Benny Oeyen: Yeah, we think there was a real call for it. The platinum group metals, and specifically platinum, they’re kind of magic metals. They’re very young.

MG: What do you mean by young?

BO: They were discovered in mid-18th century, in 1750. In the world of metals, that’s … very young, very pure. It means we haven’t yet discovered many of the things you can do with them. And we’re discovering now more and more that they’re a key part of the “green” transition. So that’s a sustainability angle. We can talk about that later.

Secondly, also we think we have a sustainability [angle] to talk about how we mine our metals. We hold ourselves to the highest standards and we feel that this story is not told in the market. The bulk of the customers don’t [know about it]. 

We were like OK, we look at different markets, markets have different structures. The U.S. market, to our big surprise, is actually a very fragmented market. In order to then communicate, etc., you need to have an entrance door to this mass market and not communicate with all of them separately. So, we started engaging with [Stuller]. And you know, a corporate relationship is a bit like a personal relationship. You start dating a little bit and figure it out, and we figured out that we like each other. We work very well together.

To answer your question more specifically on sustainability, I think it’s an underestimated story of what platinum and the platinum group metals can do for the world. 

“The mentality of the ‘80s, like, just give me something that’s really nice and I don’t care how it’s made, etc. … that’s a bit gone.” — Benny Oeyen, Anglo American 

MG: Even though, as you mentioned, this market is fragmented, is sustainability something a lot of consumers are after today, whether they’re in Texas, Florida, Minnesota, California, or Pennsylvania?

BO: They are and especially in America because the American consumer is very educated, especially the younger ones, right? The mentality of the ‘80s, like, just give me something that’s really nice and I don’t care how it’s made, etc., … that’s a bit gone.

[Now, consumers] want to know a little bit about, where’s the product coming from, are we not destroying the Earth, etc. We feel there is a big field open there and I think we have a good story to tell in two vectors.

One is that platinum can help in the whole sustainability businesses in order to build a future energy system, that’s one, and secondly, the way we mine.

So, at Anglo American, we hold ourselves accountable to the highest mining standard, it’s called IRMA. This is the most severe one. It’s one that many miners don’t like because it’s an NGO one and many would like to make their own but we put that as our standard that we want to be measured against.

We now have several mines that are already IRMA certified, and we want [to get the whole group certified]. 

“The American market definitely still has a lot of potential for jewelry. There was this myth that young people don’t care about jewelry anymore. That is not showing in the numbers.” — Benny Oeyen, Anglo American 

MG: I want to talk a little bit too about Anglo American’s relationship with Platinum Guild International USA. Anglo American is now the sole sponsor of PGI USA. What makes Anglo so confident in the future of jewelry here? And when you look at jewelry, do you see growth in bridal or what we would call fashion, meaning non-bridal, jewelry?

BO: I think that the American market definitely still has a lot of potential for jewelry. There was this myth, which I now call an urban myth, 10 to 15 years ago, that young people don’t care about jewelry anymore. They want to take a cruise or a trip around the world or a romantic weekend in Paris rather than jewelry. That is not showing in the numbers.

MG: No. Jewelry absolutely exploded during the pandemic.

BO: Yep, there you go. We see a lot of potential there.

Secondly, we see a lot of potential for platinum because jewelry used to be very traditionally yellow and now there’s a lot of people who like the other colors. And we say if you want something that looks like platinum, it’s better to buy the real thing. We think if we tell our story with platinum, we have a lot of potential there.

And then to answer your question whether it’s bridal or whether it’s fashion, you know, you cannot convince people to get married with advertising campaigns. But you can convince people to self-purchase.

You don’t have to wait for a big occasion like a marriage; you can also be super-happy and buy something for yourself because you feel good about it. And there we think there’s a very big untapped potential still.

So, very concretely, we think bridal is like the foundation. It will always be there. And then on top of bridal, we can build the house of fashion, “Platinum Born” for example, but many other things we can do.

That is really how we see it.

Platinum Born earrings and necklace
The “Andromeda” earrings ($1,100), left, and matching “Andromeda” necklace ($6,900) from Platinum Born, the collection of everyday platinum jewelry launched in 2017


MG: I want to talk a little bit about price. Metal prices are always of interest to our readers. The price of platinum has been below the price of gold for some time now. Where do you see the platinum price going in the future?

BO: Listen, traditionally platinum has been higher than gold because it’s a diversified metal. It has the same usage as gold, for example store of value and jewelry, but then it has a lot of other [uses].

The main application [of platinum has historically been] in catalytic converters in internal combustion engine cars and then we had the whole story when the EVs (electric vehicles) started popping up … and [many believed] EVs are going to take over the market. And that [expected decline in future platinum demand] is now priced in the platinum price already.

I have worked over 20 years in the car business and in comparison, only six years in the mining business so I can speak with a little bit of authority on cars—believe me, EVs are not going to take over the market.

They’re going to take a big chunk, but they’re not going to be 100 percent of the market.

MG: Why?

BO: Because they’re just not practical for many people. There are some physical limitations [such as limited range and the time and infrastructure required to recharge them].

We think fuel cell electric vehicles [are the future] because a fuel cell electric vehicle is an electric car that drives like an electric car but the consumer behavior’s can be like a traditional gas/internal combustion engine car.

[In a fuel cell electric car], electricity is made on the spot on board by mixing hydrogen with outside air in a device called the fuel cell.

MG: So where does the platinum fit into this?

BO: In two parts; the first is to split water, it’s called electrolysis. So, H2O is water, and you want to split the “O” off. The device that does that is called an electrolyser, and one of the main types of electrolyser technology contains platinum. Platinum makes the chemical reaction when you put electricity in it so that oxygen is split off. That’s one part of the hydrogen story where platinum is present. 

And so now you have pure hydrogen, and you want electricity again. This is where a fuel cell comes in. So, we mix [the hydrogen] again with oxygen in an environment like a fuel cell where there is platinum to help the chemical reaction to release electricity. It’s essentially the same process as the electrolyser but in reverse. So, there you put electricity in and you have hydrogen; now, you take hydrogen, mix it with oxygen, you take electricity out.  

In a fuel cell, there is a lot of platinum. Without platinum as a catalyst, it simply doesn’t work.

 Related stories will be right here … 

MG: How many fuel cell vehicles are there on the road today?

BO: Not very many. Toyota has a Mirai, Hyundai has Nexo, and then are already four [hydrogen fuel cell vehicle] manufacturers in China. And BMW is now starting to look at it with the X5. 

The Achilles Heel is that you need a hydrogen refueling station. We’re facing there a chicken-and-egg situation. If you talk to the OEMs, the car manufacturers, [and ask], why don’t you make more fuel cell cars? They say because there are no stations. If you talk to Marathon or Texaco or Shell [and ask], why don’t you make more stations, it’s because there are no cars. 

It’s a classic chicken-and-egg. That will be broken by semis [that are used to transport goods long distances].

I’m from Belgium, so I have to give you a beer example. [If you drive] from Budweiser in St. Louis to Denver or something like that with a big truck, if you do that with batteries, you will have mainly batteries in the truck and a few pints of beer. And that’s where fuel cells are coming in.

There’s a lot of talks with the big trucking companies, Freightliner, Mack, Daimler. Then there’s Nikola, which is a truck manufacturer, a new startup that will make fuel cell trucks.

With these trucks along the big highways will come the hydrogen stations. It’s like diesel to the United States. United States doesn’t have passenger car diesel but there’s some big pickup trucks that drive with diesel. When I lived in Michigan, in my neighborhood gas station there was no diesel but, on the highways, I-75, I-94, [there was diesel]. It will be the same with hydrogen.

And that will create a lot of demand [for platinum]. 

The Latest

Susan Jacques
GradingJan 14, 2025
GIA CEO, President Susan Jacques to Retire at the End of 2025

The grading lab said the search for her successor is underway.

Jewelry designer and National Jeweler guest columnist Jules Kim
ColumnistsJan 14, 2025
Jules Kim: Building Bridges Between Creators and Industry

In this special op-ed, designer Jules Kim calls on big brands to collaborate with independent creators instead of copying their designs.

Emily P Wheeler purple heart earrings
Policies & IssuesJan 14, 2025
These Designers and Retailers Are Raising Money for LA Wildfire Relief

Several jewelry designers are lending a helping hand to charities in Los Angeles amid the raging wildfires.

Resolutions - 2025.jpg
Brought to you by
3 New Year’s Resolutions for Jewelry Lovers

The new year feels like a clean slate, inspiring reflection, hope, and the motivation to become better versions of ourselves.

Henry A. Hänni
GradingJan 14, 2025
Former SSEF Director Henry A. Hänni Dies

A pioneering figure in gemology, he is remembered for his spirit of generosity, curiosity, and joy.

Weekly QuizJan 09, 2025
This Week’s Quiz
Test your jewelry news knowledge by answering these questions.
Take the Quiz
Woman wearing rings on both hands
FinancialsJan 14, 2025
Signet Jewelers Lowers Q4 Guidance After Holiday Sales Fall Short

The peak selling days leading up to Christmas did not meet the jewelry retailer’s expectations.

Edouard Schneider
MajorsJan 14, 2025
Edouard Schneider Joins Messika as Chief Brand Officer

Schneider brings over 20 years of luxury and fashion industry experience to his role as a key member of the brand’s global leadership team.

ride_or_die_1872x1052.png
Brought to you by
A Diamond Is Forever Celebrates "Forever Present" Holiday Campaign

A Diamond is Forever hosted a holiday celebration in honor of their new marketing campaign, ‘Forever Present.’

Gemfields emeralds
SourcingJan 13, 2025
Zambia Reinstates 15% Export Duty on Precious Gemstones, Shocking Gemfields

Gemfields said the Zambian government revoked the 2019 suspension of the tax with no warning.

Woman’s silhouette with smart ring on finger
TechnologyJan 13, 2025
Ultrahuman Unveils Luxury Smart Ring

With versions in 18-karat gold and platinum, the wearables company is blending health technology and fine jewelry.

Brandee Dallow
Policies & IssuesJan 13, 2025
Brandee Dallow Elected President of Ethical Metalsmiths

The executive brings more than two decades of industry experience to the role.

Camille Zarsky and curated necklaces
IndependentsJan 13, 2025
The Seven Pops Up in Palm Beach

The New York City-based retailer is bringing its curation of jewels to a pop-up shop at Love Binetti in Palm Beach, Florida.

Jewelers Relief Fund logo
Policies & IssuesJan 10, 2025
Jewelers Relief Fund Reopened to Aid Victims of LA Fires

Created by JA and DCA, the fund is collecting money for jewelry businesses damaged by the wildfires in Los Angeles County.

Elsa Jin Mozi Brooch
TrendsJan 10, 2025
Piece of the Week: Elsa Jin’s ‘Mozi’ Brooch

Adrien Brody received his first Golden Globe while wearing the “Mozi” brooch, which depicts a spill of traditional Chinese calligraphy ink.

Paul Rowley, Sandrine Conseiller, Vipul Shah, and Kirit Bhansali
SourcingJan 10, 2025
De Beers, GJEPC Partner to Promote Natural Diamonds

The pair will work together to support independent retailers in India with marketing assets, training materials, and other tools.

Counterfeit Tiffany & Co. jewelry near U.S. Customs and Border Protection logo
CrimeJan 09, 2025
US Customs Seizes Counterfeit Tiffany & Co. Jewels

Officers in Champlain, New York valued the jewels, if genuine, at nearly $30,000.

Karma El Khalil Meteor Necklace
CollectionsJan 09, 2025
Karma El Khalil’s New Collection is an Ode to the Moon

The “Moonlight Rhapsody” collection is overflowing with gemstones, from raw opal to morganite and spessartite.

AGTA Seminar Series
Events & AwardsJan 09, 2025
Here Is the 2025 AGTA GemFair Tucson Educational Lineup

The seminar series covers topics from market trends and colored stone terminology to working with museums and growing an Instagram profile.

Diamond Trails Reena Ahluwalia
SourcingJan 09, 2025
Reena Ahluwalia Unveils New Works in ‘Diamond Trails’ Anthology

The artist collaborated with industry creatives on the project, which features five fictional stories and five corresponding paintings.

Virginia Jewelers at the Children’s Hospital Foundation Ball
IndependentsJan 09, 2025
Virginia Jewelers Raise Nearly $26K for Children’s Hospital at Charity Ball

Nine jewelers donated jewels for a raffle to support the Children’s Hospital Foundation at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Miss Piggy taking a selfie
WatchesJan 08, 2025
Oris Debuts Hot Pink Miss Piggy Watch

Miss Piggy shared her thoughts on being fabulous, the importance of accessories, and how to be your own cheerleader.

Rings in the Promise by Effy lab-grown diamond jewelry collection
Lab-GrownJan 08, 2025
Effy Introduces Brand Dedicated to Lab-Grown Diamonds

“Promise by Effy” includes fashion jewelry and engagement rings.

Haltom’s Jewelers closing ad
IndependentsJan 08, 2025
Haltom’s Jewelers to Close After 130 Years

The Texas-based jeweler is closing all three locations.

Zendaya and Engagement Ring at 2025 Golden Globes
TrendsJan 08, 2025
Zendaya’s Engagement Ring Combines Vintage and Modern Elements

Zendaya’s ring, featuring an east-west set elongated cushion-cut diamond, is said to be from British designer Jessica McCormack.

National Jeweler columnist Emmanuel Raheb
ColumnistsJan 07, 2025
The Smart Lab: The Hottest Digital Marketing Trends For 2025

Micro-influencers, customer reviews, and shoppable videos are going to be key to getting customers’ attention, Emmanuel Raheb writes.

Lindsey Scoggins Studio Gypsy Link Ring
TrendsJan 07, 2025
Amanda’s Style File: January Is for Garnet

Garnet is comprised of a group of minerals, giving those with a birthday in January options when it comes to their birthstone.

Huan Tain and staff of Quest Fine Jewelers in Fairfax, Virginia
IndependentsJan 07, 2025
Edge Retail Academy Names 2024 ‘Wag’ Award Winner

The annual award, created in memory of business coach William “Wag” Wagner, went to a retailer in Fairfax, Virginia.

×

This site uses cookies to give you the best online experience. By continuing to use & browse this site, we assume you agree to our Privacy Policy