Stillwater Mining Co. announced yesterday that it is to recycle catalysts from cars for their precious metal content.

Power Mount Inc. will provide the catalysts, all of which contain platinum group metals, which will be recycled at Stillwater's Montana smelting and refining facility.

Under the terms of the contract, Power Mount will source catalyst parts from repair shops and yards, then pass them on to Stillwater for processing. The recovered pgms will then be sold on.

Stillwater CEO and chairman, Frank McAllister, told Reuters that the deal would allow his company's smelter and refinery complex to increase the amount of metals it recovered.

'The metals we mine are used by the automotive industry to protect the environement by cleaning auto emissions', he said.

'Recycling those metals back into commerce after they have been used is also environmentally responsible.'