Precious Metals Companies Ink Deal

Western Platinum, jointly owned by Lonmin and Impala Platinum, have signed an agreement with Viking Platinum LLC to recycle the platinum group metals in spent auto catalysts, it was announced.

Viking Platinum is a wholly owned subsidiary of Viking Investments and Asset Management while Lonmin has a 73 percent stake in Western Platinum and Implats owns the remaining 27 percent.

Viking Platinum and Western Platinum have entered into a 36-month supply agreement that Viking will sell catalytic converter material containing PGMs to Western Platinum, which will smelt and refine the material and be free to market the metals derived.

The agreement allows for a build-up in deliveries starting next month with 3,500 ounces per month of PGMs rising over a nine-month period to 8,500 oz per month. The agreement is non-exclusive.

The secondary PGM market is seen as a major growth area in the next five years, and Viking aims to become the lead purchaser and processor of secondary PGM material out of the US and Europe.

Implats and Lonmin are the second and third largest platinum miners in the world respectively.

Viking began its transformation 14 months ago by buying a platinum group metal recycling business in Connecticut. Last August it added an operation that takes the metals out of old cellphones and other electronic consumer goods. Western will smelt and then refine the material recovered from this.

If platinum group metal price prospects were healthy enough to make the secondary market interesting 14 months ago, it is surely extremely attractive now that precious metals have rocketed on war fears.