February 07, 2008	Thursday	Muharram 28, 1429

LONDON, Feb 6: Platinum hit an historic high on Wednesday as the market remained concerned about supplies from top producer South Africa following a power crisis in the country that has hit mining operations.

Other precious metals also advanced, with gold rising more than 1 per cent to trade just below $900 an ounce and silver gradually moving towards its recent 27-year highs.

Spot platinum rose as high as $1,814 an ounce before easing to $1,807/1,812 at 1133 GMT, against $1,770/1,775 late in New York on Tuesday.

The lack of spare power generating capacity in South Africa is not only affecting output in the short term but has the potential to delay new projects by months or even years, said Tom Kendall, metals strategist at Mitsubishi Corporation.

Speculators have got this platinum bull by the horns and could easily drive the price towards $1,900. The market will remain very volatile at least until Anglo Platinum and Impala have released financial statements next week.

He said the platinum market was likely to see a deficit of at least 350,000 ounces this year and perhaps much more on top of last year’s 375,000 ounces shortfall.

South Africa’s government appealed to mining firms for help in cutting power consumption on Tuesday to ease a power crisis caused by the failure of electricity generation to match economic growth.

Gold bounced back towards $900 an ounce as recent drops attracted physical buyers and bargain hunters, analysts said.

Spot gold rose to $897.10/898.00 an ounce from $886.85/887.55 late in New York on Tuesday, when it hit a two-week low of $885.30 mainly on a firmer dollar.

The metal rose to a record high of $936.50 on Feb.1.

In other bullion markets, US April gold futures rose $10.9 an ounce to $901.10 in electronic trade. Palladium rose to $413/418 from $411/415 an ounce, but was off Tuesday’s six-year high of $427. Silver rose to $16.43/16.48 an ounce from $16.32/16.37 in New York.—Reuters