London—Platinum's price reached a record high for the second day in London, trading above $2,000 an ounce, reports Bloomberg News.
Platinum for immediate delivery in London gained as much as $50, or 2.5 percent, to $2,027.50 an ounce, according to the news source.
The escalated price is due to power cuts in South Africa, which accounts for almost 80 percent of global platinum output.
The world's second-largest platinum producer, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd., forecasted a drop in its platinum output due to the power shortages, which could be as much as 40,000 ounces of production, roughly equal to more than two days of global supply.
South Africa's state-run utility Eskom Holdings Ltd. told Bloomberg News it will retain limits on power supply to users such as mines and smelters to 90 percent of normal needs until 2012.
In related news, gold for immediate delivery in London increased 0.2 percent to $908.68 an ounce, according to the news source. The metal's price reached a record high on Feb. 1 at $936.92.
Posted by DiamondIdeals - Specializing in Engagement Rings
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Rhodium is mined primarily in South Africa and Russia. It is traded on a daily basis and the current price of over $7,000.00/oz makes gold and platinum look inexpensive. At this price, it is no wonder it is used only in very small amounts. Rhodium plating of jewelry results in an extremely thin layer of rhodium, measured in microns.
Gold is a yellow metal. When it is alloyed (mixed) with other whiter metals such as silver, nickel or palladium, it takes on a whiter look. This whiter version of gold, known as white gold is not entirely white. In fact, white gold is a very pale shade of yellow. In order to give white gold jewelry the incredible white shiny look sought after by consumers in a jewelry store, every piece of 14 or 18 Karat white gold jewelry is plated with rhodium and polished to a high shiny finish.
As durable as rhodium is, when it is applied in such a microscopically thin layer, it will wear off. Many people look at their engagement rings after they have worn them for a few months and notice that their diamond ring is yellowing around the edges. One of the surprisingly popular searches done on the web today is by people looking to find out how to clean white gold. The truth is white gold cannot be cleaned. Or more precisely, white gold cannot be whitened by cleaning. Any cleaning will loosen and removed trapped dirt under the diamond, but will not clean the gold. The only solution is to bring the ring back to a professional jeweler and ask them to re-plate the ring with rhodium. This is a common process and can be done in a few hours at little cost. After re-rhodium plating, the jeweler will polish the ring to a high shine and voilà, the ring will look like new.
Unfortunately most jewelers will not disclose this aspect of buying white gold jewelry. The alternative white metal which does not need rhodium plating is platinum. Platinum does cost more that gold, but when you consider the lifetime of maintenance required by white gold, the price of platinum may not be beyond consideration.
Posted by DiamondIdeals - Specializing in Engagement Rings
As far as steering your friends toward buying platinum engagement rings, that is a personal choice. Unfortunatly platinum prices are going through the roof these days. You have to ask yourself if you feel comfortable recommending they spend more money. Over the long haul, platinum will require less maintenance than white gold, but most people don't always consider the longer term implications.
If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us through http://www.diamondideals.com
George
George
www.diamondideals.com
Diamond Ideals tries to maintain costs as low as possible in order to make superb jewelry affordable. Unfortunately there are some forces that are impossible to contain. We maintained our prices on engagement rings and wedding bands as long as possible, but finally had to relent. Even with this small price change, Diamond Ideals still creates extraordinary engagement and wedding rings at highly competitive prices.
Posted by DiamondIdeals - Specializing in Engagement Rings
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Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.
Megan Diamond Ideals
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Investment demand for gold surged 56 percent in the third quarter of 2005, WGC said in a release issued Thursday. Overall gold demand rose 7 percent in terms of tons (the seventh consecutive quarter of growth) and 18 percent in dollar terms (the 10th consecutive quarter of growth).
Demand for gold jewelry grew 2 percent in tons and 11 percent in dollars. Year-to-date demand for gold jewelry rose 12 percent in tons and 20 percent in dollars. Gold jewelry sales in the United States grew 3 percent in the quarter, lagging behind other parts of the world, including the Middle East and Greater China. White gold remains popular in the mass market, but yellow gold is driving the fashion end and leading the growth, WGC says.
Strong economic growth and gold jewelry promotion continued to propel demand in the third quarter, according to WGC's report, but September's sharp spike in prices hampered sales in some regions.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York platinum futures stormed to a new 26-year high Thursday morning on the third day of speculative and trade buying, while palladium hit a 17-month peak and gold and silver reached 10-day highs. Dealers said the broad rally in the precious metals was fueled by buying in Asia this week, which spilled over to European and New York sessions amid expectations that growing commercial demand for platinum group metals would keep prices climbing. "It's been TOCOM [Tokyo Commodity Exchange] buying that's been fueling the market," said a precious metals trader in New York. "The funds and the general public have been very active in platinum the last two nights, but it's quieter in New York at the open as CTA [Commodity Trading Advisor] buying kind of stalls out here," he added. "But it feels like in the medium term, platinum's going to hit $1,000, or at least try up there, because technically it looks pretty good." January delivery of platinum at the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $9.80, or nearly 1 percent, to $965.50 an ounce. Benchmark futures had not seen such a peak since they fell from above $1,000 in 1979. George Gero, a senior vice president at Legg Mason Wood Walker, said stockpiling of platinum and palladium for use in catalytic converters also supported prices. Both metals are crucial components of antipollution systems in motor vehicles. Platinum is also widely used in fine jewelry, and palladium jewelry recently became a popular, less-expensive option. Geopolitical news and economic uncertainty have given metals a lift as well, after Wednesday's deadly bombings in Jordan and a U.S. trade report Thursday morning, Gero said. "At this point, people are waiting to see if the markets are going to go to their next levels." Spot platinum climbed to $958/962 an ounce from its previous close at $950/953 in New York. December palladium rose a sharper 2.25 percent in early trade, up $5.35 at $244 an ounce, with the morning peak of $246.90 its loftiest since June 2004. Spot palladium was quoted at $241/244, up from $233/237 late Wednesday. Although palladium's value currently is only 25 percent of platinum's, sources believed that its rally might have more legs. "Palladium is starting to catch up here," said Gero. "It's a more interesting move from $180 to $245 [since September] than platinum's [move] from $950 to $960" this week, he added. In gold, benchmark December delivery futures rose 20 cents to $467.70 an ounce at NYMEX's COMEX division, in a range of $466.50 to $470.90, which was its highest since Oct. 31. Gold rose despite the dollar's rally against the euro, with the greenback withstanding a brief sell-off after the U.S. trade deficit surged in September. The trade gap rose to a record $66.1 billion in September, shattering the previous high of $60.4 billion set in February, due to record oil prices following Hurricane Katrina and a drop in overall exports. The record trade gap was much wider than a midpoint forecast of $61.0 billion made by Wall Street economists. "In gold, there's good buying in Tokyo. And I think that it was maybe a little oversold in the $450 range and so it has bounced back," the metals trader said. "It's trying to consolidate and I think it's going to grind around up here." After gold's previous rise set off prepositioned buy orders at $462 and $465, traders said, chart resistance at $475 appeared to be the next upside obstacle for the market. Spot gold was quoted at $467.60/468.40, up from its last close at $461.70/462.50. The late fix by bullion dealers in London on Thursday was at $467. December silver climbed three cents to $7.71 an ounce, trading from $7.67 to $7.79, which, like gold, was its highest since Halloween. Spot fetched $7.72/74, up from $7.65/67 late Wednesday.
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