Palladium follows platinum higher as mining strike lowers production
Precious metals buyers pushed palladium prices higher on February 22, as markets responded to news that a strike at a Rustenburg, South Africa mine had lowered the production of both the precious metal and platinum.
Spot palladium was trading 0.8 percent higher at $711.58 an ounce, and platinum appreciated to its highest value in five months earlier in the day, according to Kuwait Times.
Palladium production has been lowered by a strike at the Rustenburg mine of, which is one of the world's largest platinum producers, Reuters reports. Operations at the mine were halted when 17,000 workers were let go following alleged illegal striking activity.
Impala Platinum stated on February 21 that it hopes that union leaders will succeed in convincing the miners to go back to work, according to Kuwait News.
"We think a slow return to production at Impala’s Rustenburg operations over the next month is likely, with total lost output expected to exceed 100,000 ounces of platinum and 45,000 ounces of palladium," Credit Suisse wrote in a note, the media outlet reports. "The market does not ‘need’ those ounces at present."
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