jim4silver
Silver Member
- Apr 15, 2008
- 3,662
- 495
Decided to diversify a bit and got some palladium Maples today that are still in the original mint plastic. Now with my little bit of platinum and rhodium I am ready for the PGMs to hopefully keep gaining.
South Africa is where most of the PGMs are mined in the world and they had big problems this past summer with riots and strikes. All three above metals moved into deficit for 2012 from what they said at the end of the year. Besides that energy prices are high in S A and tend to go up each year in double digit percentages.
As long as they keep making catalytic converters, palladium and rhodium will always be needed and platinum too for diesel applications, but they are finding ways to get palladium to do partially what platinum does in diesel, but it will never replace platinum 100%.
Much $$$$ and effort was put into ways to use less platinum and especially rhodium after the spike to $10,000 per oz in 2008, and this brought more research into how palladium could be used to replace more platinum in each converter.
What is funny is that now Rhodium is around 1125 which is much cheaper than platinum and palladium is catching up to rhodium (still has quite a ways to go). I wonder if they will retool for a higher rhodium content for the reduction phase of the converter since it is cheaper than platinum? There has been a surplus of rhodium for the past few years which is how it got so cheap relatively speaking. But with the South African problems the rhodium supply should remain in deficit for a while along with the other PGMs, and could get worse if things heat up over there again.
One big mining company there is laying off 14,000 workers and suspending operation at several mines. They say the company could lose over 400,000 oz of platinum in 2013 due to these closures (and would also lose corresponding amounts of palladium and rhodium I assume since they are all mined from the same ore).
Should be interesting to watch.
Jim
South Africa is where most of the PGMs are mined in the world and they had big problems this past summer with riots and strikes. All three above metals moved into deficit for 2012 from what they said at the end of the year. Besides that energy prices are high in S A and tend to go up each year in double digit percentages.
As long as they keep making catalytic converters, palladium and rhodium will always be needed and platinum too for diesel applications, but they are finding ways to get palladium to do partially what platinum does in diesel, but it will never replace platinum 100%.
Much $$$$ and effort was put into ways to use less platinum and especially rhodium after the spike to $10,000 per oz in 2008, and this brought more research into how palladium could be used to replace more platinum in each converter.
What is funny is that now Rhodium is around 1125 which is much cheaper than platinum and palladium is catching up to rhodium (still has quite a ways to go). I wonder if they will retool for a higher rhodium content for the reduction phase of the converter since it is cheaper than platinum? There has been a surplus of rhodium for the past few years which is how it got so cheap relatively speaking. But with the South African problems the rhodium supply should remain in deficit for a while along with the other PGMs, and could get worse if things heat up over there again.
One big mining company there is laying off 14,000 workers and suspending operation at several mines. They say the company could lose over 400,000 oz of platinum in 2013 due to these closures (and would also lose corresponding amounts of palladium and rhodium I assume since they are all mined from the same ore).
Should be interesting to watch.
Jim
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