Platinum prices plummet on S.A. energy announcement

April platinum prices dropped $159.10 to $2,041.70 per troy ounce after an announcement in South Africa that the state-owned utility will increase electricity supplies to producers from 90 percent to 95 percent of normal.

Platinum prices have soared recently after a five-day work stoppage due to energy shortages and subsequent statements from the state-owned utility that it could not guarantee regular supplies of electricity for several years to come.

Other precious metals prices were mixed on the session as April gold fell $2.60 to $974.50 per troy ounce but May silver gained 3 cents to $20.25 per troy ounce.

May copper was down early on demand worries as it looks more and more as if the US economy has entered a recession, but prices for the base metal were up later in the session.

In early afternoon trade May copper added 2 cents to $3.92 per pound in New York, although three-month copper in London dropped $53 to $8,502 per tonne.

A Merrill Lynch analyst predicted that the use of copper in the United States will decline by 2.3 percent this year and that demand in Europe will drop by 1.9 percent, but that consumption in China will grow by 7.8 percent after growing 14.5 percent in 2007.