Platinum rises again amid mixed precious metals prices

The price of platinum rose again in New York even though South Africa’s state-owned power company introduced a plan to address issues related to power shortages there which closed platinum and other mining operators there for several days recently and have kept mines operating at less than capacity since then.

April platinum was up $22.20 to $2,005.90 per troy ounce in afternoon trade in New York after having gone as high as $2,030.60 per troy ounce in overnight trade.

Platinum prices are up by more than $500 since 22 January.

Other precious metals prices were mixed as April gold added 80 cents to $911 per troy ounce after early declines, while March silver dropped 9 cents to $17.26 per troy ounce in New York.

Among base metals, May copper was 4 cents lower to $3.50 per pound in New York ahead of an inventories report from Shanghai due Friday, on the possibility that China stockpiles are up.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped $100 to $7,780 per tonne, or $3.49 per pound.