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PLATINUM.
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By David T. Day.
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INTRODUCTION.
PRICES.
The
principal feature of interest in the platinum industry during the year
1906 was the phenomenal rise in prices for ingot platinum. The
Engineering and Mining Journal shows that on January 6, 1906, the
market price for ingot platinum was $20.50 per troy ounce. In one month
this had risen to $25 per troy ounce, and the market continued
stationary at this figure until the last of June, when a further rise
to $26 was noted on June 23. Continuing at this figure until the end of
August, the price advanced to $28.50 on September 1. A week later it
had risen to $33, and it continued at tliis price until November 17,
when it was quoted at $38 per ounce, remaining at this figure until the
end of the year, after which it rose slightly higher. In February,
1907, for the first time a distinction was made between ordinary
platinum and hard platinum; that is, platinum rich in iridium and
osmium, considerable iridium being allowed to remain allojed in the
platinum of the ingots. Such hard platinum was quoted at $41 per ounce
on February 23, and this price continued until April 6, 1907, when the
placing on the market of more than 100 pounds of platinum by a new
producer interested in American developments checked the advance, and
on May 4, 1907, ordinary platinum was quoted at $32 and hard platinum
at $35. Then a gradual decline set in, $26 being the price for ordinary
and $28.50 for hard platinum, which prices continued almost up to the
time of this article (August, 1907). The marked effect of this rise in
price in stimulating the interest in the search for platinum all over
the world makes it advisable to give a resume of the prices of platinum
with such statements as have been put forth as to the reasons offered
for this remarkable advance. These are best summarized in an article by
Mr. S. I. Gulishambarov, of the Russian ministry of finance, which has
been translated in the Mining Journal (London), as follows:
Mr.
Gulishambarov expressed bis opinion that the rise in price of crude
platinum was brought about by the fact that whilst the demand for this
product on the foreign markets has remained steady and even shows signs
of increasing, the supply of it has diminished lately. The Paris firm,
under the title of the
Compagnic Industrielle du Platine, which is the largest producer of
crude platinum in the Urals and is also the owner of large
platinum-refining works in Paris, forms at the same time the connecting
link between the remaining independent platinum producers and the
combine of platinum buyers, headed by the London firm Johnson, Matthey
& Co. This French company can gain nothing by lowering prices, but
on the contrary is making every possible
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551
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