Platinum deficit will shrink this year

Investors sent platinum group metals higher after the massacre in South Africa.

A standoff between hundreds of strikers wielding pangas and sticks at London-listed Lonmin's Marikana mine ended when police began firing on a surging crowds leaving many dead.

South African police began firing on a surging crowd of workers leaving 18 people dead.

A nightshift policeman hacked to death during clashes between rival unions brings to nine the number of fatalities at Lonmin's platinum mine in the North West province of South Africa.

Unless it mounts a challenge against its $1,500 resistance level, platinum will "stay on loose grounds" and will fail to attract new investment.

Congregants are expected to throng the Shree Swaminarayan temple in New Jersey this Sunday to ceremonially weigh their guru in honour of his 70th birthday. Preliminary estimates are that Swami Purushottampriyadasji's good works are worth just under $4 million or the equivalent of 40,000 catalytic converters.

Three protestors are dead and 20 are injured at Aquarius Platinum's Kwezi shaft when 200 disgruntled former contractors, some carrying petrol bombs, forced their way onto the company's property.

Bongani Mbindwane, CEO of South African junior explorer Platfields (SJ:PLL), has written an open letter to South Africa's mineral resources minister calling for direct assistance in dealing with the platinum sector's dire condition.

Platinum's poor performance relative to gold of late may be due to its lack of status as a safe-haven investment and a credible means of storing value.