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Since the industrial application of the internal combustion engine, the number of vehicles and their technologies has continuously grown world-wide to over 50 million vehicles yearly since 2000 and are forecast to grow to 180 million yearly by 2050. Over time societal and consumer needs with regard to vehicles have changed and environmental considerations have become much more important such as increasing fuel efficiency and reducing vehicle emissions. The precious metals group (PGM) plays an important role in meeting these needs. The continuously increasing use of metals combined with the fact that natural resources are finite make that business as usual is not sustainable. The automotive industry is the single largest user of PGM's and those contained in end of life catalytic converters are richer than any known primary source of PGM. The vehicle is a “mine on wheels” not only for the PGM contained in the converters but also for other metals used in the advanced technology vehicles.