Charlotte Mathews
1 October 2008
Johannesburg — DEMAND for nickel and platinum group metals would be underpinned by the steel and engine catalyst sectors, but com modity markets would remain challeng ed in the coming year, Braemore Resources chairman David Humann said yesterday.
Braemore, which took a secondary listing on the JSE two months ago, is testing technology to treat tailings containing nickel at Leinster in Australia and scaling up its test plant to treat platinum group metals in SA. The shares, which made their debut in SA at about 90c, have traded as high as 120c and as low as 40c on small volumes.
Nickel dropped $300 to $16700/ton on the London Metal Exchange yesterday, as analysts quoted by Reuters predicted the market would remain in surplus to 2011, and that prices could fall as low as $13228/ton next year.
Platinum group metals prices tracked gold weaker in a response to the US government's market bail-out package, with platinum trading at $1017/oz and palladium shedding over 1% to $218/oz.
But Humann said China and India continued to need steel to build infrastructure, and nickel would also be needed. Although fears that a US recession would affect the automotive sector had hit the platinum price, new uses for the metal in electronics, especially cellphone technology, would sustain global demand.
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