-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Platinum Market Demand Rises for Platinum, Palladium, and Rhodium And then there's Russia Platinum group metals are providing one of the few glimmers of light in otherwise depressed metals markets. Platinum itself had a run-up last month, but the real action has been in two important associated metals, palladium and rhodium, both of which have trebled in price (in US dollar terms) since the start of 1997. The buoyant markets have also helped share prices of platinum producers. The platinum group metals' strength stems from its use for cleaning up vehicle exhaust emissions in autocatalysts. More stringent standards, particularly in the US, mean demand is set to rise. Shares of South African platinum producers, whose profitability has been helped by a weaker rand, have been especially buoyant. Impala Platinum, for instance, has risen by about 140 per cent since the start of 1997. Mercury Asset Management now has over 13 per cent of its �74m ($119m) Gold & General unit trust invested in South African platinum shares. Supply of the metals is already tight, particularly in palladium, where Russia is the largest producer. Exports from Norilsk, in Arctic Russia, are plagued by physical and bureaucratic delays, although a new long-term export licence for palladium was last week said to have been agreed. Worldwide demand for palladium was 8.2m ounces in 1998, about 3m more than new production, according to Johnson Matthey, and supply deficits are expected to continue into 2000. Analysts disagree whether Russia can or will plug the gap. "Since 1994, Russia has sold about 10m ounces from its stocks to balance increasing demand. However, the size and availability of the remaining stocks remain a state secret and leaves the market in uncertainty," says the latest strategic report from Canadian researchers Metals Economics Group. Expectations of strong demand have already prompted leading palladium producers to expand production, both through new mines and expansion at existing mines. MEG estimates how these expansion plans will add to supply as follows: The 14 major palladium producing mines could increase their capacity from 5.2m ounces in 1999 to 5.6m ounces in 2001. This estimate assumes no increase at Norilsk, whose capacity is left unchanged at 2.5m ounces. Capacity is expected to remain unchanged at Inco's Ontario division and Gold Fields' Northam mine. All others are expected to rise, with notably large capacity increases at North American Palladium's Lac Des Isles Mine (up 120,000 ounces to 200,000 ounces) and BHP/ Zimplats' Hartley mine (up 80,000 ounces to 110,000 ounces). Six potential new mines, most with start-up dates of 2001 or earlier, could add another 800,000 ounces to annual palladium production capacity. The three largest are: Stillwater's East Boulder (384,000 ounces); Zimplats' Ngezi (134,000); Amplats' Bafokeng-Rasimone (100,000). Another five projects are at an early stage of exploration. Strategic Report from Metals Economics Group, PO Box 2206, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3J 3C4 The Financial Times, March 10, 1999 Hillary's Husband's ex-Girlfriend That Woman by Mark Steyn Left to his own devices, Andrew Morton, author of "Diana: Her True Story" (1992) and "Diana: Her New Life" (1994), would probably have been content to chug through "Diana: Her New Story," "Diana: Her True Life" and "Diana: The True Story of Her New Life." But in 1997 fate intervened and it was Andrew who found himself in need of a new life and a new story. So the man who proudly described himself to the Toronto Sun as a "trained historian" has now turned his hand to oral history. When "Monica's Story" (St. Martin's, 288 pages, $24.95) was first announced, there were those who doubted whether the former Court correspondent could make the transition from a stuffy, class-bound culture where you have to drop to one knee before the head of state to a more relaxed, democratic milieu where you have to drop to both knees before the head of state. As a Royal reporter, Mr. Morton was in a world where no one knows nothin' and you can speculate to your heart's content. Faced for the first time in his career with a subject who's given 30 pages of sworn testimony about who put whose cigar in which ad hoc humidor, he seems flummoxed. If you want the dirty bits, Ken Starr does the thongs and DNA better than Andrew, who seems to be pining for the less forensic atmosphere of his old Palace beat. Of Bill and Monica's final encounter, he writes: "This moment of yearning, passion, regret, and a host of other emotions, is reduced in the Starr report to one of sleazy banality." Maybe so, but even Monica concedes that, during their farewell kiss, she opens her eyes halfway through and finds that he's staring absent-mindedly out the window, presumably wondering how much longer he can keep Yasser Arafat waiting. In the twilight of their romance, the president seems to pay a strangely apt price for his refusal to reciprocate: He gets a sore throat and puts his knee out. Mr. Morton covers Monica's progress from Beverly Hills to Washington via Portland, Ore., "where recycling is more than just a long word." Wow. If Andrew and Monica find "recycling" a long word, it's no wonder they have trouble with "morality" and "responsibility." Although the Lewinskys are strictly untrained historians, they too know their stuff. Mom's family saw Mr. Starr's "technique used very effectively by Josef Stalin, which is why they left Russia"; to Dad, Ken is reminiscent of "the Hitler era"; Monica sees herself as Anne Frank -- except, of course, that Anne, presumably because of a screw-up by her agent, never got to do a book-signing at Harrod's. "Monica's Story" is, one assumes, the best case Mr. Morton can make for his clients, but truly it's hard to know which Lewinsky is the most dismal: the remote, disengaged father; the "sophisticated" mom whose maternal support extends only to functioning as a handy Rolodex of counselors, therapists and diet clinics in the greater Washington area; or the pathetic daughter, whose various liaisons have included only one with an unmarried man. After the moral void of her childhood came the yawning vacuity of a modern college education: At Lewis and Clark, Monica was a teaching assistant in "The Psychology of Sex," "where students explored the relationship between sexuality, individualism and society"; and was also "profoundly affected" by a course on "The Social Construction of Madness." I was startled to find that she later gave the president a book from this course called "Disease and Misrepresentation" -- if only because that was the working title for my own forthcoming history of the Clinton years. Between the lawyering, the media grooming and the anti-depressants, it's doubtful whether there's any real Monica left for Mr. Morton to get to the bottom of. Like so many who whine about low self-esteem, her real problem would seem to be a ludicrous excess of the stuff. But she's ideally suited to the adolescent narcissist in the Oval Office, and one can only trust that, sometime after January 2001, her dreams of becoming the second Mrs. Clinton will finally be realized. Until then, let us hope the president can survive without his intern. As Mr. Morton writes of one encounter: "He was in pain not only physically -- he suffers from chronic back problems -- but emotionally: that day, he had received news of the first killing of an American serviceman in Bosnia. So while he and Monica once more indulged in their form of making out, it was an emotional occasion for both of them, particularly for the President, who, as Commander-in-Chief of all U.S. forces, was feeling his heavy responsibilities especially keenly." Fortunately, down on the Oval Office broadloom, his favorite heavy was feeling her own responsibility especially keenly. "His distress touched Monica deeply. 'At that moment I thought we were so lucky as a country to have such a caring and sympathetic man as the President.'" Whatever happens, they'll always have Bosnia. Later, after her first trip to the Balkans, Mr. Clinton is "enthralled, actually sexually aroused, by her excited description of the Bosnia visit." All trained historians will be watching with interest to see whether Kosovo also makes him horny. The Wall Street Journal, March 9, 1999 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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