PGM activity continues despite price slump.

• Author: Ross, Ian
• Position: Platinum group metals - Brief Article

Despite crashing prices in high-tech metals, exploration for platinum group metals (PGMs) in the Sudbury district continues unabated.

Palladium is trading at half of the level it reached earlier this year, with analysis attributing its precipitous drop to the downturn in the technology boom last year. But that has not cooled the while-hot exploration activity levels in the Sudbury district among junior mining companies committed to bringing their properties into production.

"This last little while there's been more junior mining exploration (around Sudbury) than I've seen in ten years here," says Mike Cosec, district geologist for the Ontario Geological Survey in Sudbury.

"Most of the money for exploration programs has already been allocated for the year," Cosec says. "You're looking at long-term exploration ventures. It's not something you can do on the current whims of the market on a day-to-day or month-to-month basic."

The price of palladium slumped to around the $444 US an ounce mark last month, continuing a downward trend that had seen the rice fall almost $100 over a 10-day stretch. Palladium was trading at more than $1,000 an ounce earlier this year, averaging around $1,041 in January. It is now trading at its lowest level in a year-and-a-half.

The price of platinum fell to $498 an ounce from $546 in mid-July. In January, it traded at $639.50 an ounce. It is believed that the demand for jewellery in Japan is keeping the price of platinum up.

Earlier this year, instability with PGM exports from Russia helped push both platinum and palladium prices to record highs. But a slowing economy and the use of other products instead of PGMs in the automotive, dental and electronic market...