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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold and Silver Juniors, Mid-tiers and Producers

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To: LoneClone who wrote (33292)	2/19/2007 9:45:38 AM
From: LoneClone	Read Replies (1) of 78409

The Rise of Ruthenium By Viwe Tlaleane 16 Feb 2007 at 11:52 AM EST resourceinvestor.com JOHANNESBURG (Business Day) -- Investors in platinum companies are eyeing ruthenium - which until now has been a largely ignored by-product of platinum production - with increasing interest as the price has soared to about $870/oz at present from $100/oz two years ago. In 2003, the metal was priced at $35/oz. Implats [JSE:IMP] marketing executive Derek Engelbrecht said yesterday the price rise was almost entirely driven by one application, which was a new ruthenium coating on hard disks to improve their storage capacity. The cost of ruthenium in these applications was very small as a proportion of total production cost but the increase in the price was likely to prompt cutbacks in ruthenium usage in other industries and encourage more recycling. Implats was also looking at recycling ruthenium to increase output. Engelbrecht said he doubted whether the ruthenium price could stay at $800/oz but said it was difficult to give a price forecast. CEO David Brown said Implats’ ruthenium sales were worth less than $30 million in the six months to December but if the current price prevailed, those sales would be worth about $250 million on an annualised basis. Earlier this week, Anglo Platinum [JSE:AMS] CEO Ralph Havenstein said the group’s annual production of ruthenium was about 500,000 ounces and it would sharpen its focus on recoveries in future. Angloplat’s production of ruthenium was greater than its rhodium output. The short-term price outlook for ruthenium was strengthened by the fact that hard disk manufacturers had to build up stocks for this new application but, like Implats, Angloplat did not believe the current high price could be sustained. Ruthenium Uses Due to its highly effective ability to harden platinum and palladium, ruthenium is used in platinum and palladium alloys to make severe wear-resistant electrical contacts. It is sometimes alloyed with gold in jewelry. Fountain pen nibs are frequently tipped with alloys containing ruthenium. From 1944 onward, the Parker 51 fountain pen was outfitted with a 14K gold nib tipped with 96.2% ruthenium, 3.8% iridium. About 0.1% ruthenium is added to titanium to improve its corrosion resistance a hundredfold. Ruthenium is also a versatile catalyst, used in the removal of H2S from oil refineries and from other industrial processes. Some ruthenium complexes absorb light throughout the visible spectrum and are being actively researched in various solar energy technologies. Ruthenium can also be used in some advanced high-temperature single-crystal superalloys, with applications including the turbine blades in jet engines. With Resource Investor.

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