Platinum

An odd market – Sprott’s Rick Rule picks platinum, palladium and uranium

By Lawrence Williams

In his pre-lunch presentation at the Metals & Mining Investment Conference in New York, consummate presenter, Sprott Global Resource Investment’s chairman, Rick Rule, began by describing the current market for mining stocks – and for gold stocks in particular – as an odd market, not acting in the way most had expected it to, including himself.  Read more

China’s platinum jewellery demand up 16% in 2012

By Lewa Pardomuan

China’s demand for platinum jewellery jumped 16 percent to near record levels in 2012 as lower prices, particularly in relation to gold, attracted more buyers, Johnson Matthey said on Monday.

The world’s biggest market for platinum jewellery consumed 1.95 million ounces last year, Read more

Platinum market shifts to deficit, first time in 7 years – GFMS

By Geoff Candy

Labour disruptions in South Africa pushed the platinum market into a narrow deficit in 2012, for the first time in seven years, Thomson Reuters GFMS said on Thursday.

Speaking at the launch of the group’s Platinum & Palladium Survey in Johannesburg, Read more

FOCUS: Platinum Hits Two-Week High; Market Eyes Upcoming South African Wage Talks

By Allen Sykora

Supply worries are starting to creep back into the platinum market, with wage negotiations in the key producing nation of South Africa scheduled to start next month.

Whereas the entire precious and base metals complex is in the green so far Monday, platinum is outperforming the others, with sister metal palladium not far behind. Read more

It might be a good time to invest in platinum – analyst

By Ingé Lamprecht

Gold could drop to $1 200 an ounce. Palladium market also looks promising.

South Africa Platinum Output Rises 66% in February From Year Ago

By Tshepiso Mokhema

South Africa’s output of platinum group metals surged 66 percent in February from a year earlier, when strikes curbed output at Impala Platinum Ltd., the world’s second-biggest producer of the metal.

The country’s total mining output climbed 7 percent in February from 2012, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa said in a statement on its website. Read more

Russia, SA join forces to reduce excess platinum supply

The world’s two biggest platinum producers, Russia and South Africa, have agreed to join forces to cope with an excess supply of the metal, a South African minister said on Wednesday.

The two countries, which hold about 80 percent of global reserves of platinum group metals, Read more

Amplats to Buy Atlatsa Platinum Mine for 1.7 Billion Rand

By Ana Monteiro & Paul Burkhardt

Anglo American Platinum Ltd. (AMS), the world’s biggest producer of the metal, will buy part of a South African mine from Atlatsa Resources Corp. (ATL) for 1.7 billion rand ($183 million) and subscribe for shares in the company.

The transactions will reduce the 3.3 billion rand that Atlatsa owes Anglo American Plc (AAL)’s platinum unit to 830 million rand, the Johannesburg-based company known as Amplats said in a statement today. Read more

Russia, South Africa Seek to Create OPEC-Style Platinum Bloc By Ilya Arkhipov & Franz Wild

By Ilya Arkhipov & Franz Wild

Russia and South Africa, which together control about 80 percent of the world’s reserves of platinum group metals, plan to create a trading bloc similar to OPEC to control the flow of exports.

“Our goal is to coordinate our actions accordingly to expand the markets for realization of these metals,” Russian Natural Resources Minister Sergey Donskoy said yesterday in an interview at a summit of leaders from Brazil, Read more

Platinum surges in India’s investment portfolio

By Shivom Seth

Indian consumers have a new frenzy, platinum jewellery. In a country where gold is the dominant choice for jewellery, platinum is finding more than a toehold.

Retailers say many customers appear to be opting for platinum jewellery rather than gold products Read more

Mechanisation for SA platinum mines a distant prospect

By Clara Ferreira-Marques & Sherilee Lakmidas

Rising wage costs and strikes have revived the arguments in favour of automating South Africa’s loss-making platinum mines, but weak prices for the metal and tough conditions underground mean mechanisation remains a distant prospect. Read more

Zimbabwe to Increase Royalties Payable by Platinum Miners

By Godfrey Marawanyika

Zimbabwe plans to raise royalties payable by platinum miners to make producers process the metal in the country, Mines Minister Obert Mpofu said.

Semi-processed ore will attract more charges than refined ore, Mpofu told reporters today in the capital, Harare. Read more

FOCUS: Platinum Slides To Five-Week Low As Other Metals Fall, Amplats Workers Return

By Allen Sykora

Platinum futures fell to a five-week low Wednesday, pulled down by weakness in other metals but also taking an extra hit due to a pair of news stories in the last 24 hours – workers returning to their jobs at Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and weaker European auto sales, traders and analysts said.

Technical-chart selling was triggered on the decline. Read more

Platinum Widens Spread Over Gold as Supply Concern Drives Rally

By Phoebe Sedgman

Platinum climbed for a third day, widening its spread over gold to the biggest since August 2011, on concern that global supply will drop this year just as a recovery boosts industrial demand. Gold advanced.

Platinum for immediate delivery gained as much as 0.7 percent to $1,733.25 an ounce and was at $1,729.12 at 2:13 p.m. in Singapore. Spot gold gained 0.2 percent to $1,645.25 an ounce. The spread between the two metals widened to as much as $88.75 in intraday trading today, the most since August 2011, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Read more

Platinum price back up above gold, but will it last?

By Lawrence Williams

In this morning’s European trade, the price of platinum rose strongly – more than 2% – largely on the back of world No. 1 platinum miner Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) announced restructuring, and the metal was trading above the gold price level for the first time in nearly a year. Read more

Pain ahead as Anglo American prepares to unveil SA platinum plan

By Ed Stoddard and Clara Ferreira-Marques

Miner Evans Ramokga has a warning for Anglo American as the mining group prepares to unveil a revival plan for its South African platinum business: don’t close any shafts.

“If one shaft closes, we stop all the shafts,” said Ramokga, a winch operator at Anglo American Platinum Read more

Platinum Group Metals Surge; Traders Eye Supportive Supply/Demand Picture

By Allen Sykora

Platinum and palladium outpaced other base and precious metals Wednesday, buoyed by a combination of traders starting to factor in supply/demand fundamentals seen as supportive for 2013, as well as some short covering, analysts said.

Otherwise, several said, there does not appear to be any fresh breaking news behind Wednesday’s surge. The sharp gains in platinum group metals are a contrast to modestly softer gold, silver and copper. Read more

Is a platinum discount the new normal?

By Alec Gimurtu

Violent strikes and supply disruptions in South Africa put platinum in the headlines last year, and the metal spent 2012 selling at a discount to gold. Is a platinum discount the new normal? How will the market shift in the labor strike fallout? And will mining asteroids transform supply fundamentals? CPM Group Platinum Analyst Erica Rannestad met with The Metals Report to share her price and cost forecasts for 2013 and discuss the supply and demand trends to watch this year. Read more

Global platinum mining capacity to increase 38,000 kg by 2015—U.S. Geological Survey

By Dorothy Kosich

A U.S. Geological Survey scientific investigations report forecasts that South Africa, Russia, Canada, and Zimbabwe will continue to be the principal sources of PGM for at least the next decade.

Global platinum mining capacity is expected to increase by 24,000 kg in South Africa, 9,000 kg in Russia, Read more

Implats’ Q1 output up despite slow Rustenburg ramp-up

World no. 2 platinum producer Impala Platinum said on Friday output in the three months to the end of September rose 17 percent despite the slow ramp-up of its key Rustenburg mine, shut earlier this year for six weeks by a violent strike.

The company said in a statement that the slow ramp-up at Rustenburg was off-set by Read more

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