Platinum and palladium flirt with US$500-per-oz. level

Platinum and palladium took centre-stage during the Jan. 26-Feb. 1 report period, owing to uncertainty surrounding export quotas for the Noril’sk complex in Siberia that had yet to be signed by Russia’s acting president, Vladimir Putin.

Over the week, platinum soared US$44 to US$495 per oz. while palladium rose US$24 to US$496 per oz. Rhodium, too, was red-hot, jumping US$100 to hit US$1,500 per oz.

The price gains were good news for some of Canada’s platinum and palladium juniors: palladium producer North American Palladium was off 30 to $6.50 but was trading at $7.10 at presstime; Platexco was up 20 to $4.30; and Freewest Resources Canada shot up 20 to 52.

Gold had a quieter week in the run-up to the Chinese New Year, easing down US$1.80 over the week to US$283.10 per oz. on the London morning fix of Feb. 2.

Canada’s major gold producers either declined or posted only modest advances: Barrick Gold dropped 35 to $23.50; Placer Dome fell 60 to $12.80; Kinross Gold was up 2 to $2.30; TVX Gold edged down 7 to 99; and Cambior rose 4 to $2.09.

Franco-Nevada Mining fell 30 during the report period, only to dip a further $2.15 by presstime on news of poorer-than-expected quarterly results for its Ken Snyder gold-silver mine in Nevada. The Colorado Grande vein, the larger of the two currently being mined, has proved more nuggety than expected and thus yielded less gold. While corrective measures are being taken, the major still expects to produce only 230,000 oz. gold-equivalent in its 2000 fiscal year, or 8% less than projected.

The darling of the base metals was nickel, which soared US18 over the week to a new 5-year high of US$4.02 per lb. Global stainless steel demand remained strong and there continued to be operational problems at the nickel laterite mines in Australia.

Canada’s nickel miners were predictably buoyant: Inco gained $1.05 to $29; Falconbridge rose $1.40 to $25.80; and Sherritt International advanced 14 to hit $3.10.

Among the remaining base metal producers: Noranda fell 5 to $18.25; Rio Algom gained 85 to reach $19.25; Teck‘s B shares were up 5 to $12.70; Cominco was up $3.10 to $30 on the back of strong quarterly results; Boliden rose a nickel to $4.40.

At presstime, diamond explorer Twin Gold was trading at 59 following the release of results from the Torngat project in Quebec. A 30.3-kg sample taken from a coarse-grained portion of the Torngat 1 dyke yielded 59 diamonds, of which 11 were macrodiamonds (greater than 0.5 mm in length) and two exceeded 1 mm in length. Twin Gold says 57 of these diamonds are white and 52 are transparent. A 298.5-kg sample taken from a finer-grained portion of the dyke yielded 24 diamonds, four of which were macros. Over the report period, Twin Gold closed up 1 to 37.