BILLINGS (Commodity Online): With platinum prices showing major gains this year, Stillwater Mining Company, leading miner of the metal, has chalked out plans to buy a Canadian mining site to increase output by 40%.

Stillwater is North America’s largest producer of platinum group metals, and the only one operating in the United States. The Columbus-based company has reached a tentative agreement with Marathon PGM to buy a site in Ontario, Canada.

Now that metals prices have recovered, and the prospects for the future of palladium and platinum prices are very strong the company is looking at these growth and diversification projects.

Platinum prices are set to climb to $1,601 an ounce in the next three weeks after prices rebounded from a support level and rose above a moving average.

Platinum, used mostly to make jewelry and pollution-control devices for cars, reached a four-week high of $1,567.35 an ounce on Wednesday. Prices gained the past two weeks as reports showed accelerating growth in US. and Chinese manufacturing and increased hiring by American companies.

Platinum has taken support in recent weeks from strikes in SA, the major platinum group metals producer, though the mining industry itself has been little affected. It is the climate of industrial action that is important and may hold relevance for platinum prices.

Unlike gold, platinum’s supply-demand balances are tight, with relatively little refined platinum held in above-ground storage.

Post your comment  (0)

Connect:

Post to Twitter

Post to Facebook