Monday, 26 December 2011

Precious metals

By Joanna Stevens


When you talk of metals in general no list can be complete without silver and platinum which are one among the precious metals. Platinum is a silver look-alike called Pt in chemical symbols and comes from the Spanish word plata. It is found as pure chunks of the precious metal and has the quality of being unaffected and not reacting even when heated to a great extent. It is this characteristic of the platinum precious metal that has made it a good catalyst for manufacturing other important substances.

The price of platinum depends to a large extent on the gold prices but also increases with an increase in car sales or sales of jewelry. These fluctuations occur when the price of gold varies. Whenever there are great finds or a new strike in South Africa the prices rise and when there are strikes at the mines then the production suffers and the prices slump. These strikes can create a slump which lasts many weeks as it takes a long time for the mines to restore their regular production.

Silver prices are affected by gold prices and it also fluctuates according to industrial demands and the demand by investors in the precious metal. Industrial demand spurred the value in the year 2009. People usually go for the coins, ETFs or bars according to the Silver Institute and this type of demand has gone up by 180% since 2008. The investment in silver precious metal is continuing to grow which is amply substantiated by the stock increase from 9000 tons to 10000 tons in the past one month in the iShares Silver Trust (SLV).

Silver is in a very unique position as compared to gold, because the increase in demand for this metal is increased by people who want to have it as a security or safety investment and moreover there are industrial needs for this metal. When the economy recovers the industries also recover and there is an increased demand with a proportionate increase in the price of silver.

Platinum has been steadily rising 23% year after year whereas silver has risen by 31%.Platinum prices are now $1,673/oz which is an increase of about 11% since the beginning of this year. In the middle of the current year however, the price was $1,700/oz. The price of Silver on the other hand has closed at $23/oz which is almost back to its all time high price of $50/oz which was in 1980.




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