HardAssetsInvestor

Written by Brad Zigler  |

December 19, 2007

Platinum’s Poorer Relation: Palladium

Details

Pork is often advertised as "The Other White Meat." Within the platinum family, palladium could promote itself as "The Other White Metal." With platinum prices now above $1,500 per ounce, cousin palladium is getting a lot more attention from jewelry consumers.

Palladium trades for a quarter of platinum's cost, a fact Chinese consumers have deeply appreciated. China is the world's leading consumer of platinum for jewelry use, but buyer resistance to ever-increasing prices has allowed palladium jewelry to make substantial inroads. More than a fifth of the world's net palladium supply now goes to jewelry, with most of the demand arising in China.

Like platinum, palladium can be fashioned into jewelry as a stand-alone or alloyed with other metals. Palladium, for example, can be substituted for nickel in the manufacture of white gold.

Palladium wasn't always a poor relation, though. Palladium, in fact, actually cost more than platinum back in 2001. The technology to efficiently cast palladium as jewelry didn't exist then. With that problem now resolved, jewelry use has spiked as the price trajectories of platinum and palladium reversed.

Palladium's not all glitz and glamour, though. The metal has industrial applications as well: in dentistry, in automotive components and in electronics. Russia's the top producer of palladium, with at least half the world share, followed by South Africa, the United States and Canada.

Knowing all this should leave you with two questions:

• a) Who's dictating demand for palladium?
• b) Who controls supply?

[Answer hint: It ain't us.]

Platinum-To-Palladium Ratio

If your answers to the quiz compel you to think palladium's potential impressive, you can, of course, trade the metal through NYMEX futures. Outside of a commodity account, you can also obtain palladium exposure through an exchange-traded note (RJZ) based upon the Rogers International Commodity Index's metals subindex. RJZ carries a 1.4% weighting in palladium futures.

Another exchange-traded portfolio (RSX), tracking the DAXglobal Russia+ Index, has an 8.6% weighting in JSC MMC Norilsk, the primary producer of Russian palladium.

And for those investors looking for opportunities closer to home, the stock of two North American producers can be considered:

Stillwater Mining Co.: A subsidiary of Norimet Ltd., Stillwater Mining Co. (SWC) refines palladium, platinum and associated minerals from its Billings, Mont., base. The company claims 2.5 million ounces in proven reserves of palladium plus platinum.

North American Palladium: Headquartered in Toronto, North American Palladium (PAL) mines platinum group metals as well as other metals. PAL's principal property is an open-pit operation that produces platinum, gold, copper and nickel as by-products.