Johnson Matthey published a report available for free download on their website this month that makes for fascinating reading. The main thrust of the report, written by R Grant Cawthorn, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand is that for each 1 km of depth into the Earth in South Africa’s Bushveld Complex, there [...]
This is the second post of a two part series. The earlier post appears here. Earlier this month, Aaron Kharivhe, a regional mines manager, sent London based miner Lonmin a letter ordering it to “refrain from selling nickel, copper, chrome or any other minerals other than platinum group metals with immediate effect. Like all other [...]
In the UK, one often assumes South Africa is as much a part of the west as Australia, New Zealand and possibly even Canada. An English speaking, resource rich country, firmly entrenched in democratic principals and as good a place to do business as any of those alternatives. Although firmly anchored to Africa, we assume [...]
Ferrochrome is one of those raw materials consumed in the steel making industry that has no futures exchange market and, compared to say nickel, limited speculative activity. So for once we can focus more on the supply and demand fundamentals rather than worry about the impact of ETF’s, financial hedging activities, or forward dated squeezes. [...]
This is the second post in a two part series. You can read the first post here. But supply is a different matter. Platinum mine production comes from just two sources. 78% comes from southern Africa and 12% from Russia. Average mine production has been falling, on average by 1% per annum over the last [...]
Is Palladium over valued and due for a fall or is it the new darling of the investment community and set to rise further in the coming months? Yes or no to both depending on who you read. Back in January we wrote our Price Perspectives for platinum, palladium and rhodium in which we analyzed [...]
Listen in to MetalMiner’s Lisa Reisman who explains why the historical variables examined to price forecast platinum, palladium and to some extent rhodium are no longer valid today. Buyers of platinum, palladium and rhodium have a particularly complicated job of tracking and projecting price movements due to the diverse range of variables that impact the [...]
Near bankrupt Eskom, state owned producer of over 95% of the electricity in South Africa has won agreement to increase power prices over the next three years. Although Eskom was seeking a 35%per annum increase, the firm has secured agreement for rate hikes of 24.8% in 2010, 25.8% in 2011 and 25.9% in 2012. Compounded [...]
