Nornickel Reports 15 Per cent Decline in Nickel Output in Q2 2017, and Palladium Production Ups

[SMM PGM Flash] Tharisa said on 25 September that the net proceeds of its US$300 million, five-year secured bond had been placed in escrow after a major settlement condition was met. Issued through Arxo Finance at 98% of face value, the bond carries an 11% coupon. Tharisa intends to use the proceeds to complete its Karo Platinum project in Zimbabwe, subject to the remaining conditions for releasing the money. The escrow step advances financing for a proposed source of platinum group metals on Zimbabwe’s Great Dyke. The money has not yet been released to Tharisa, and Karo is not a completed mine. The company targets first ore to Karo’s mill in the fourth quarter of 2027; both the drawdown and that operating milestone remain ahead.

[SMM Gold & PGM Flash] A new study published in the Journal of Commodity Markets finds that platinum has exhibited broader and more persistent co-movement with inflation and real interest rates than gold. Researchers Arusha Cooray and İbrahim Özmen examined monthly data from July 1999 through December 2024 across the US, Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, using turning-point analysis, wavelet coherence and time-varying Granger-causality methods. The study found gold’s macroeconomic relationships were comparatively weaker and more fragmented, while platinum and silver showed broader synchronization, particularly in the US and Germany.​ The researchers attribute platinum’s stronger macroeconomic sensitivity in part to its substantial industrial exposure, meaning its price reflects not only monetary conditions but also manufacturing activity, investment and supply constraints. The findings do not establish platinum as a universally superior inflation hedge: the relationships varied across countries, periods and monetary-policy regimes. Instead, the study highlights a fundamental difference between the metals, with gold’s broader monetary and defensive role producing a different response to inflation and real-rate conditions.