The Wall Street Journal-20080201-Platinum Price Jumps To --36-1-737-40 an Ounce- Mining Woes Help Contract Hit High- Silver- Gold Climb

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Platinum Price Jumps To $1,737.40 an Ounce; Mining Woes Help Contract Hit High; Silver, Gold Climb

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Renewed concerns about electricity supply to South African mines boosted platinum prices.

Most-active April platinum on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose $50, or 3%, to settle at $1,737.40 a troy ounce, after hitting a contract high of $1,742.60. In after-hours trading, the contract hit $1,744.40.

Another round of rolling blackouts hit South Africa yesterday as state-owned Eskom Holdings Ltd. -- the nation's primary power company -- struggled to meet demand and won't ramp up the supply of electricity to mines and other large industrial users by the end of this week as planned.

"We had a brief restart, and now that has proven to be very short- lived," said Bill O'Neill, a principal with consulting firm Logic Advisors LLC. "It's an emergency situation over there that doesn't look like it's going to be improved for some time."

The sector's vulnerability has put the spotlight on platinum, and investors are "jumping on" as fabricators also seek to lock in price agreements before the metal goes any higher, said Carlos Sanchez, precious-metals analyst with CPM Group.

In other commodity markets:

SILVER and GOLD: Silver futures rose 1.4%, as the metal benefited from rising equities and ideas that a boost in the stock market will bode well for industrial demand. Comex silver on the Nymex for March delivery rose 23.5 cents a troy ounce to $16.995. Gold futures rose slightly as traders digested news of Wednesday's Fed interest-rate cut but later ran into technical resistance to limit the gains. February Comex gold gained $2.10 a troy ounce, or 0.2%, to $922.70.

NATURAL GAS: Futures ended slightly higher, as a late burst of bargain hunting reversed earlier losses. The contract also was supported by data showing U.S. storage volumes declined last week by 274 billion cubic feet, the largest weekly draw ever recorded. Natural gas for March delivery rose 2.9 cents, or 0.4%, to $8.074 a million British thermal units on the Nymex.