Thursday April 30, 7:06 pm Eastern Time
Norilsk palladium ore said running out
LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) - The near depletion of palladium ore at key Russian producer Norilsk Nickel has driven the
white metal's recent price surge, a Canadian mining firm said on Thursday.
Seymour Schulich, chairman of Franco-Nevada Mining Corp Ltd (FN.TO - news), told analysts at a London presentation that
the company believed the Norilsk ore body was close to depletion.
''The main source, which is one of the ore bodies at Norilsk, is pretty well exhausted and that is why you are not seeing
palladium coming onto the market,'' Schulich said.
Palladium has soared to record highs of $390 an ounce this month, from around $200 in January, on the back of supply delays
from Russia -- the world's biggest palladium producer.
Norilsk and Russia's Almazjuvelirexport export agency have remained silent on precious metal production and export volumes,
continuing a Soviet-era tradition of cloaking the industry in secrecy.
Schulich said Franco-Nevada last month bought a five percent royalty worth C$51 million ($36 million) in certain metals
produced by the Stillwater Mining Co (SWC - news) palladium and platinum mine in the United States.
The Stillwater deal held good promise for Franco-Nevada, Schulich said.
With future prospects for the use of platinum looking good with new fuel cell technology, Schulich said his company believed it
had made a good investment in Stillwater.
The Stillwater mine in Montana is expected to produce around 450,000 ounces of platinum group metals (PGMs) this year
and around 1.3 million oz by 2003.
It is one of the few PGMs operations outside South Africa, Zimbabawe and Russia. |
