SouthernEra Shares Rise With Platinum and Palladium Prices
By Pav Jordan
SouthernEra Shares Rise With Platinum and Palladium Prices
Toronto, Feb. 15 (Bloomberg) -- SouthernEra Resources Ltd.
shares rose 6.9 percent, rising for a fifth day as investors bet
rising palladium prices will boost the value of its stake in a
platinum-palladium project in South Africa.
SouthernEra rose C$0.19 ($0.13), or 6.9 percent, to C$2.94 in
Toronto trading of 358,850 shares, nearly three times the three-
month daily average of 123,131. The stock rose 63 percent since it
closed at C$1.80 last Tuesday.
Toronto-based SouthernEra is scheduled to complete its
US$10 million purchase of a majority stake in the Messina
platinum-
palladium property in South Africa this month. SouthernEra
bought
the 54-percent stake last May from Impala Platinum Holdings
Ltd.,
the world's second-biggest platinum producer. Palladium is the
metal used in catalytic converters for automobiles.
''Certainly at the kinds of platinum-palladium prices we have
currently, the project would be extremely economic,'' said Kerry
Smith, an analyst with National Bank Financial in Toronto. He
ranks the stock a speculative buy.
Palladium surged almost 9 percent today, the biggest gain in
19 months, as export restrictions by Russia limited supplies for
automakers and other users from the metal's biggest producer.
Palladium for March delivery rose US$52.85, or 8.7 percent,
to a record US$658.35 an ounce on the New York Mercantile
Exchange, the biggest one-day gain since July 1998. Palladium
prices, which rose 47 percent this year, were at or near record
highs since November as rising car sales and stricter clean-air
laws boosted demand for the metal.
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