Platinum bull run to continue for many years

The bull trend in platinum prices will continue for years and investment in companies mining the metal will yield high returns, a fund manager said.

"At a time when many other sectors are seeing their profit margins decreasing, platinum miners will keep their big margins," Bernard Loriol, partner at Switzerland-based mutual fund Best Asset Class, told Reuters in an interview.

The sector may remain as one of the best performing mining stocks, as profit margins of platinum miners had gone up as high as 60 per cent because of high metal prices, he said.

Platinum surged to a record high of $1,395 an ounce in November on talk of the launch of an exchange-traded fund (ETF) and positive fundamentals. It was at $1,300/1,305 by 1655 GMT on Thursday, down from $1,324/1,329 in New York on Wednesday.

The company mainly invests in commodities. It has about $800 million under management, of which its platinum fund, called the Bushveld Fund, accounts for a quarter, he said.

"There is no stockpile of platinum and probably the situation would continue for the next 10-to-15 years," he said, adding that mining firms would face difficulty in meeting growing demand, especially in the autocatalyst sector.