About Isondo
A majority black-owned PGM enterprise, built to keep the value of South Africa's platinum group metals inside South Africa.
The company
Isondo Precious Metals is a PGM technology company. We convert a critical mineral endowment into engineered products on the continent that holds it.
The plant is a purpose-built, high-tech four-storey specialist facility in the OR Tambo Special Economic Zone at Kempton Park, Gauteng — adjacent to South Africa's principal international airport and its precious metals logistics corridor. Under one roof it houses PGM chemical processing and catalyst synthesis, cleanroom production to Class C / ISO 7 with localised Class B / ISO 6 zones, MEA manufacturing, specialist PGM analytical laboratories and dedicated MEA testing laboratories. The MEA and catalyst lines come from leading German and UK suppliers.
The facility, laboratories and MEA production line are currently in the start-up and commissioning phase, and not yet at full operation.
South Africa holds the world's dominant platinum reserves. For decades those reserves were exported as raw or semi-refined material, and the value that sits further up the chain — the chemistry, the catalyst, the coated membrane, the finished assembly — was captured elsewhere. Isondo was founded to change where that value lands.
Leveraging those reserves, we have built an integrated platform that beneficiates PGMs into specialty chemicals, catalyst precursors, catalysts and membrane electrode assemblies. That places the company in the middle of the downstream PGM value chain — the part that historically happened offshore — rather than at the far end of somebody else's supply chain.
Leadership
Every kilogram of platinum group metal converted into a chemical, a catalyst or a component inside South Africa is value that stays here. Isondo Precious Metals
Isondo Precious Metals was founded in 2012 by Vinay Somera, a former platinum sector executive with over thirty years of experience in the PGM industry and a long-standing advocate of beneficiating those metals inside South Africa rather than exporting the value with the ore.
The company deliberately positioned itself ahead of the downstream PGM opportunity. In the years since, it has developed significant innovations and improvements in catalyst and MEA production processes, and built strong global relationships with partners and customers across several industries.
That long runway is why the facility exists at industrial scale today rather than as a pilot line: the technology work was done before the market arrived.
The facility
Isondo holds Strategic Integrated Project designation under South Africa's Green Hydrogen National Programme, placing our work at the intersection of the Critical Minerals and Metals Strategy, the Green Hydrogen Commercialisation Strategy, and the Just Energy Transition.
SIP
Strategic Integrated Project designation under the Green Hydrogen National Programme
SEZ
Located in the OR Tambo Special Economic Zone, with its incentive regime
First
South Africa's first industrial-scale PGM catalyst and MEA facility
2012
Founded, well ahead of the downstream PGM beneficiation opportunity
A vertically integrated plant covering PGM chemistry, catalyst manufacture, ink formulation, catalyst-coated membrane production and MEA fabrication, with electrochemical testing and quality control in line.
We are finalising the development of recovery processes for platinum group metals from spent catalysts, process residues and end-of-life components, returning them to the value chain rather than to export.
Our values
We prioritise safety across all operations, to protect our people and the environment.
We are dedicated to our mission and vision with focus, discipline and determination.
We conduct business ethically, treating all stakeholders with fairness and respect.
We pursue continuous improvement by enhancing our processes, systems and outcomes.
Recognition
In June 2025 the Minister of Electricity and Energy launched the African Green Hydrogen Summit at our facility, describing it as a first-of-its-kind for Africa.
Isondo is now able to run with the big dogs internationally. President of the Minerals Council of South Africa and CEO of Northam Platinum
Isondo has also hosted German federal ministers, traditional leadership from the platinum belt, and official South African trade delegations — at the plant itself.
That is not incidental. When a country wants to demonstrate what downstream beneficiation of its critical minerals actually looks like, it needs somewhere to point. This is that place.
People and expertise
Isondo is supported by a globally renowned advisory board and a world-class technical team of international and South African experts across the PGM and hydrogen sectors.
Our primary aim is to create desperately needed employment in South Africa. We run a well-developed graduate intern programme in which young technical graduates are trained by our own experts in every aspect of the green hydrogen economy — from PGM chemistry and catalyst formulation through to electrochemical testing and MEA fabrication.
How we work
Our technology relationships span molecular recognition refining, electrolyser stack development, and system integration.
The approach is deliberate: bring proven international technology into a South African industrial base, and adapt it to local feedstock, local skills and local markets. It is faster than building every process from first principles, and it de-risks the parts of the chain where the engineering is already solved.
The clearest example is our recycling and refining route, which is planned to deploy IBC Advanced Technologies' SuperLig® Molecular Recognition Technology (MRT™) — supplied to Isondo in 2021 and commercially proven in PGM refining since the mid-1990s.
Ownership and transformation
Isondo Precious Metals is a majority black-owned (HDSA) enterprise. In an industry where ownership has historically sat far from the communities that host the resource, that is a deliberate structural choice, not a compliance exercise.
It shapes who we employ, who we train, and who benefits when South African platinum group metals are turned into high-value components on South African soil.
Our current B-BBEE certificate is available on request for procurement and supplier vetting purposes. Contact us and we will send the verified certificate directly.
PGM regulatory licence, gazetted Strategic Integrated Project status, air emissions licence, NEMA compliance, SETA-accredited training and alignment to SDG and ESG frameworks.
We host technical visits, delegations and partner meetings at the OR Tambo SEZ plant. Tell us who is coming and what you want to see.
