Rare Metals Continue To Shine

Industrial demand and erratic supply continue to boost prices for platinum and palladium.

Prices for the two precious metals have climbed steadily during the past three years, while gold prices have languished.

Gold closed at $265 an ounce Monday, compared to platinum at $590 an ounce and palladium at $772.

“They’ve always been expensive,” said Jeffrey Christian, managing director of CPM Group Ltd. in New York.

Platinum and palladium are rare. They have few substitutes, which keeps prices high, he said.

The metals’ largest uses are in electronics and as catalysts to clean automobile emissions. Platinum jewelry is also prized in Asia.

Increased demand, coupled with declines in Russian exports, has led to the price hikes, Christian said.

Russia is the world’s largest producer of palladium and the second-largest producer of platinum.

“The Soviet Union used to be a pretty stable supplier of commodities,” Christian said. For political reasons, Russian exports of platinum and palladium have been erratic since 1997, he said.

All this has been good news for domestic suppliers of the two metals.

Stillwater Mining Co., the nation’s only primary platinum/palladium producer, is trading at $28 a share. The company expects to produce 500,000 ounces of the two metals next year at its mine north of Billings, Mont.

Trend Mining Co. of Coeur d’Alene has also benefited.

The 30-year-old exploration company shifted its focus from silver to platinum and palladium two years ago.

“They’re the only metals that are interesting right now,” said President Kurt Hoffman.

Trend Mining has 13 exploration properties in the U.S. and Canada. Company shares were trading at $1.30 last week, up from 6-10 cents a year ago.

In August, Trend Mining announced that it was 57 percent owned by Thomas Kaplan, chairman of Apex Silver Co. and a heavyweight in the mining industry.

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig’s staff is hosting several town hall meetings in North Idaho on the Farm Bill.

Craig, R-Idaho, said the input from local farmers will help him next year, when Congress begins re-authorizing the bill that governs price subsidies and farm programs.

The meetings begin Wednesday: 9 a.m. at the Genessee Senior Citizens Hall, 140 E. Walnut St.; 1:30 p.m. at Craigmont City Hall, 109 E. Main St.; and 4 p.m. at Grangeville City Hall, 225 W. North St.

Two more meetings are Thursday: 9:30 a.m. at the Bonners Ferry Fire Hall on First Street, and 2 p.m. at the Worley Grange on U.S. Highway 95.

For more information, call (208) 667-6130.

Idaho potato growers are calling for an import ban on Canadian products that could spread potato wart fungus.

The fungus has been discovered on Prince Edward Island. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture placed a quarantine on fresh and seed potatoes from that province.

The Potato Growers of Idaho want the quarantine expanded into a ban on all potential carriers of the fungus. Potato wart is a devastating disease that survives in the soil through decades, the grower’s association said.

The disease is not currently found in the U.S. Its introduction could jeopardize efforts to open Asian markets to imports of fresh potatoes from Idaho, the association said.

Idaho growers produce 135 million 100-pound bags of potatoes annually.