U.S. platinum rises ahead of S. African strike

(Reuters) - Platinum futures in New York rose early
Monday on the back of robust physical and trade buying ahead of a national
mining strike in the world's top platinum producer South Africa. Meanwhile, U.S. gold contracts were higher and dealers said bullion
could find technical support after its sharp losses last week. "I think the imminent strike with the safety issue boosted platinum. We
are also hearing in TOCOM (Tokyo Commodities Exchange) that there are some
very good physical buying in the last couple of days in platinum, despite
gold being very weak and silver being very weak," said Ralph D'Esposito, a
NYMEX floor trader in New York. At 10:26 a.m. EST (1526 GMT), most-active New York Mercantile Exchange
January platinum PLF8 was up $7.90 at $1,452.00 an ounce, trading between
$1,436.10 and $1,454.50. Spot platinum was quoted at $1,448/1,453. Mines in South Africa will fall silent at midnight on Monday due to a
national protest against mine deaths, with warnings of further action if
fatalities continue. South Africa accounts for nearly 80 percent of the
world's total platinum output. [ID:nL03280899] Almost a quarter of a million members of the country's biggest mining
union will down tools in the one-day action, the first-ever national and
industry-wide strike on safety, as the death toll in the mines, some of
which are the world's deepest, rose over the weekend to near the 199 killed
in 2006. D'Esposito also cited heavy commercial activity on the buy-side and
robust investment demand. "I am still maintaining that $1,500 is just
around the corner here," he said. NYMEX January platinum hit a contract high of $1,498.80 on Nov 7. GOLD HITS BOTTOM? Gold futures rebounded on a slightly weaker dollar in spite of lower
crude oil prices. February gold GCG8 on the COMEX division of the NYMEX was up $3.70 at
$792.80 an ounce, trading between $783 -- which marked a near two-week low
-- and $798. "We've seen a good pullback in gold from the highs and we are starting
to bump along technical support around $775. We will see if people in the
next 48 hours will view this as a opportunity to buy or is this going to be
further liquidation," said one precious metals dealer in New York. Gold futures finished at a 10-day low last Friday after posting heavy
losses last week. The February contract hit a three-week high of $844.20
last Monday, but it had dropped $55 from its Monday peak last week. The dealer said that the South African strike should have a bigger
impact on platinum compared to gold. "Overall, it will continue the trend of diminishing supply from South
Africa in gold," he said. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission said in its latest
Commitment of Traders report that noncommercial net gold position rose to
175,081 lots in the week up to Nov 27 compared with 172,390 lots in the
week earlier. [ID:nN30326378] In the government sector, the European Central Bank (ECB) said it
completed gold sales amounting to 42 tonnes of gold on Nov. 30, which were
in conformity with the Central Banks' Gold Agreement of 2004. Meanwhile, the Bank of Spain held its gold reserves at 9.1 million troy
ounces in November, data on the central bank's Web page showed on Monday.
Spain held 13.4 million ounces of gold at the end of last year.
[ID:nL03315429] Spot gold was quoted at $786.60/786.80 an ounce, compared with
$783.50/784.20 in New York Friday afternoon. London bullion dealers fixed
the afternoon spot reference price at $784.25. COMEX March silver SIH8 was up 5.50 cents at $14.22 an ounce, trading
between $13.96 and $14.26. Spot silver was quoted at $14.03/14.08 an ounce, compared with
$13.96/14.01 late Friday in New York. London silver was fixed at $13.860. March palladium PAH8 dropped $3.15 to $350.20 an ounce. Spot
palladium fetched $346/349.