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Gold/Mining/Energy : Platinum Group Metals (PGMs) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ptaskmaster who wrote (233)	1/28/2000 3:52:00 PM
From: Paul Berliner	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 529

No...its been pretty quiet. Didnt somebody, maybe yourself, link an interview a month back with the head of Norlisk? The bigwig said that Norlisk's future PGM reserves are ample. This whole Palladium thing is getting a little crazy - I just saw an article in last week's Barron's on it for crissakes. What all of us need to know, once and for all, is a ballpark figure on the Russian's mine ore content - but they won;t ever even hint at it. That information is worth a fortune! -Paul

To: Ptaskmaster who wrote (233)	1/28/2000 7:37:00 PM
From: DRT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 529

Mining Journal - January 28, 2000, Volume 334. No.8567 Lead Story: Palladium driven to record A combination of strong demand from automobile manufacturers and renewed concerns over supplies from the dominant producer, Russia, propelled palladium to new record price levels this week. There had been excitement in the palladium market at the end of last year (MJ December 24/31, p.504), but the situation calmed somewhat, when it was learned that Russia had re-entered the spot market. This week, however, the palladium price soared, rapidly rising through the previous record high to touch US$480/oz at one point. This compares with US$436/oz at the beginning of last week and around US$325/oz one year ago. In 1999, world supply of palladium amounted to 7.7 Moz, versus demand of 8.3 Moz, and Russia contributed about two thirds to total supply. Over the past few years supplies have been frequently delayed by bureaucratic hold-ups, but last year it was hoped that the setting up by Russia of a ten-year system of quotas would return stability to the market. This has not been the case; supplies via long-term contracts have been sporadic and, and a Russian presence on the spot market has been almost non-existent, until very recently. Palladium's main end use is in autocatalysts, and it is a recent development in the US that may have provided the spur for the latest price surge. Andy Smith, precious metals analyst with Mitsui Bussan Commodities Ltd, points out that just before Christmas, President Clinton made an announcement that over the next few years the increasingly popular sports utility vehicles, minivans and light-duty trucks (which now comprise 50% of the new cars sold in the US) will have to comply with the strict emission standards that are applied to cars. To achieve this, these vehicles will have to be fitted with autocatalysts, heavily loaded with palladium. This rather than questions over Russian palladium exports may be the main driving force behind this week's price surge.