Investing in precious metals has proved a rewarding way to maximise the potential of savings. Like other investments prices of precious metals can go down as well as up.

Availability

Like silver and gold, platinum has to be mined from the earth. There is less platinum out there to be mined than there is gold and silver. This makes it harder to find and extract, pushing the price of platinum up. Historically platinum has sat at the top of the tree of precious metals. Rings using platinum for settings have been more expensive than gold, it has industrial uses (for example in catalytic converters in motor vehicles) and we still rate platinum credit cards above gold.

Unfortunately platinum’s price has not remained as high as one would expect.

Rumour and speculation can affect the price of platinum and one that circulated recently was that the Chinese were going to mine asteroids for platinum! It’s easy to see that such a scheme isn’t going to come to fruition any time soon …

Supply and demand

Platinum has a range of industrial applications and this is one factor that has helped keep prices high. When demand for platinum in such applications falls, so does the price. The price of platinum is therefore directly linked to the ups and downs of the global economy. Just as demand can fall, it can also rise again, which is a clear indicator of the need for potential investors to keep a close watch on movement within … READ MORE ...