An Article on Platinum I thought I'd Share with you.

http://lynncoins.com/plat_article.htm

Mining Platinum.
Platinum is usually found naturally in deposits of small grains, dust, or small nuggets averaging 50-75% purity. Small amounts of it are acquired as byproducts of other mining. The industrial extraction of platinum is complex. The metal often is found in ores mixed with other metals such as palladium and gold. On average it exists on the earth’s crust at about 5/1000th’s of a gram per metric ton of earth.

Not only is platinum less abundant than gold, it found in only a few mine-able deposits on earth. Most platinum is mined in South Africa, Russia, and North America. South Africa produces over half (to 2/3rds) of the world supply. Russia is the next biggest producer. The North American mines are primarily palladium mines with platinum being a small percentage of the metal production. It takes about 10 tons of raw platinum ore to produce one pure ounce of platinum.

Platinum as an investment
Experts say that platinum’s supply and demand is very tight. The above ground supply of platinum is very low compared to gold or silver. Small changes in mining or usage may have dramatic implications. For example, at current consumption if platinum mining were to stop, the above ground supplies would last only a couple years. In comparison, world gold supplies might last ten times as long. The above ground availability of platinum has been tight even during periods of relatively normal production. There are no known large platinum stockpiles to protect against significant supply disruptions. During World War II the US government recognized this and halted all non-military use of the metal.

 

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I never really thought about investing in platinum but then I read this article and read how scarce it is.. I don't know about some of you but I don't think it would hurt to own a little.. only thing is, you have to be able to stomach its commonly large price fluctuations daily.

 

Yes, but don't forget that platinum is highly recycled, so even if the existing supply is "consumed" it will be recycled and be made available again and again.

 

I think platinum is a good investment...right now...all those who bought last year when it was $2500 and ounce would disagree...but I don't really think the price will fall......especially with all the industrial and automotive uses for platinum and paladium....a whole market for recycling both these metals is growing as well...the future will be interesting

 

Wow.. $2500 an ounce. Sheesh, I missed that!

 

yeah people were climbing underneath cars and cutting off peoples catalytic converters to recycle the platinum and paladium

 

Supply is not necessary tight - platinum recycling rate is one of the highest and while South Africa contributes to something like 66% of the world's platinum supply and Russia about 25%, an interesting supplier would be Zimbabwe which is estimated to produce about 15% of the current world platinum production in the next 10 years should the politics in Zimbabwe remain stable. The Zimbabwe government wanted something like 50% of the profit initially - pretty absurd.

For 1 grand, platinum sounds about right. 2 grand? Way too much and overrated. Remember rhodium? Those who invested when rhodium hit 10 grand are still hitting themselves at the back.

I honestly dislike reading investor driven reports as they have absolutely no clue about the production rate, much less real demand. All they do is to hype up how scarce it is so that they themselves make money.

If you want the real stuff, read it from miningweekly.com or if it's about platinum group metals, www.platinum.matthey.com . Those are the real good stuff, not some crappy investor trash.