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Sub Sea Research LLC, a Portland Maine based company located the worlds richest shipwreck, a WWII British Freighter carrying a secret cargo of 71 tons of Platinum sunk by a German U-Boat off the coast of Cape Cod. Sub Sea Research (SSR) spent months searching for the elusive ship, the Port Nicholson, torpedoed by German U-boat U87, June 1942. It took two torpedoes and about 7 hours to sink her. U-87 also fired at the troop ship the “Cherokee,” quickly sinking her with a heavy loss of lives. The Port Nicholson is a steel-hulled, 481 ft. merchant ship, coal fired...

For the second year in a row, the United States Mint did not offer platinum bullion coins for precious metals investors. Bullion products available from the US Mint during 2010 included only gold and silver coins. The American Platinum Eagle was last available to the US Mint's network of authorized purchasers in November 2008 when the last 800 one-half ounce coins available had been sold. Immediately following the sell out, the Mint announced the delayed launch of 2009-dated bullion coins, including the Platinum Eagles. Since that time, Platinum Eagle bullion coins have not been available in any format. When the...

Reports showing a stronger U.S. economy pressured precious metals prices lower Thursday, though silver and palladium prices set multiyear highs earlier in the session. The most actively traded gold futures, for February delivery, settled down $7.60, or 0.5%, at $1,405.90 per troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The thinly traded January-delivery contract settled at $1,405.60 per troy ounce, down $7.50, or 0.5%, on the day. Despite settling in negative territory, gold prices remain above the psychologically important $1,400 mark as investors prepare for the final trading day of the year Friday. "There is not...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Gold futures advanced to a record Tuesday as investors sought out an alternative to currencies amid lingering fears of a worldwide slide into recession. Gold for August delivery, the most active contract, rose $4.80, or 0.4%, to settle at $1,245.60 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest price since gold futures started trading in the 1970s. That supplanted the previous record of $1,243.10 reached May 12.

Weiss Research Natural Resources Analyst Sean Brodrick expects the bull market for precious metals to run for "quite some time," with gold hitting $1,450 /oz. by year-end and silver at $25 not long after. In this exclusive interview with The Gold Report, Sean sees silver reasserting itself as a monetary, investment and industrial metal. South of the border, some of the Mexican miners have an "embarrassment of riches"-which have largely escaped the attention of Wall Street. The Gold Report: You recently remarked that we're "trillions of dollars in debt and we can't seem to grow our way out of it,"...

Julius Malema ...fresh off of a meeting with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, has said he will follow his neighbors policy of land seizure... And, most concerning to foreign investors, he has called for the nationalization of South Africa's mines. South Africa's mining industry produced 11% of the world's gold, 80% of the world's platinum, and 40% of the world's palladium in 2007.

Gold continues to be a wildly popular global obsession, but the winds may be changing a little. Why? Platinum is undervalued, out of the public eye (compared to gold), and production is set to expand as auto manufacturers begin producing more vehicles. Investors are even beginning to go long platinum while simultaneously shorting gold: Bloomberg: Even after a record 57 percent rally last year, platinum is cheap relative to gold, signaling more gains as demand grows from carmakers and exchange-traded funds. “We are long platinum and short gold,” said Jonathan Barratt, the Sydney-based managing director with Commodity Broking Services Pty,...

It was one of the finest gifts my children gave me this Christmas—Susan Boyle’s CD: “I Dreamed A Dream.”

GM wants to cancel its contract with the Stillwater mine as part of its bankruptcy reorganization that infused the company with $50 billion in government loans. Platinum is mined in just two other countries — Russia and South Africa — and Schweitzer says canceling the contract would put the United States at a strategic risk and hurt the mining industry.

It sounds almost too good to be true: add a few bugs to food scraps and waste water to generate clean hydrogen fuel. But over the past few years, researchers have been gradually working toward this promising scheme for producing hydrogen.Now, with the help of an unassuming stainless-steel brush, microbial electrolysis cells (MECs) have taken another step forward. The steel brush can be used to replace the expensive platinum normally employed in the electrolysis cell's cathode, slashing costs by more than 80 percent.Hydrogen is an appealing, environmentally friendly fuel because burning it creates only water as a waste product. MECs...

We aren't allowed to even link in the posting source URL box or excerpt this source, but this article is worth a look: CLICK ME

ZIMBABWE'S gold deliveries fell 181,6 percent last month compared to the same period last year. According to the Chamber of Mines, gold output for October was 125 kilogrammes, down from 352kg last year.

A few years ago, I dragged my carcass into a swanky Hawaiian resort, presented my credit card, and watched the front desk clerk turn ashen after entering a few keystrokes into her terminal. "Who are you?" she asked. Confused and exhausted after more than 20 hours of flying from London, I answered prosaically: "Joe Brancatelli." Then I tried a lame joke: "It's a common Hawaiian name." "No, I mean, who are you?" she repeated before turning her monitor toward me and pointing to my guest profile. Next to my name were six V's in front of V.I.P., about a dozen...

SO, after losing a third of its value in the last year and several tens of thousands in the last month, I'm going to get out of my money market account before 0bama and his minions steal and tax the rest of it away. Thinking of puting about half of it into real estate, and maybe putting the other half into precious metal bullion/coins. I notice that there is some delay in order fulfillment throughout the market, but was hoping that some of you guys knew which brokers were best, in terms of prompt delivery, honesty and price.

The Alchemist Aston Martin DB7 is a 24 carat gold and platinum leafed supercar with seven diamonds studded into the bodywork. Good luck parking the thing safely outside your local shoe shop. Oh but we forget, people with this amount of money don’t do their own shopping do they? Tsk! Silly us. Recession, what recession, James? Oh and the company plate laptops too, just in case you were interested.  Alchemist is a company specializing in covering or decorating cars and cars’ rooftops in pure 24-carat gold leaf. This London-based company is run by Jacques Blanc, a former French art director...

Can only post link, due to copyright stipulations: http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/anorak-fabric-a-boost-for-fuel-cells/2008/08/01/1217097479505.html

Nisshinbo Industries Inc. (TSE:3105) has worked with the Tokyo Institute of Technology to develop the technology to use carbon instead of expensive platinum as the electrode catalyst for fuel cells. The company hopes to have a practical version of the new catalyst ready in fiscal 2009, and will start by commercializing a product for the electrodes of residential fuel cells. Later, it will develop and commercialize a version for automotive fuel cells.

Gold and silver bugs, move over. Investors are flocking to a new class of precious metals: the kind that actually do things, rather than end up in vaults or on fingers. Platinum prices have soared 33% this year and its cheaper cousin, palladium, has risen 22%, largely on demand for cleaner cars. A flood of new investment vehicles -- including exchange-traded funds -- that allow investors to bet on these metals' trajectory also are fueling the market. The two metals are called "precious" because of their scarcity. Platinum jewelry has long been a higher-end alternative to gold. But unlike gold,...

The price of platinum struck an historic high nearing 1,900 dollars here Monday on supply disruptions caused by power shortages in South Africa, the white metal's biggest producer, traders said. On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum struck a record peak of 1,899.25 dollars. It later stood at 1,895 dollars an ounce. The price has been firm since November because of concern over deliveries from South Africa, where production has been affected by accidents, a miners' strike and now power shortages. "With state energy provider Eskom forecasting the (power) problems to continue for several weeks, further gains seem inevitable...

NEW YORK, Feb 8 (Reuters) - U.S. platinum futures rallied toward $1,900 on Friday on the back of a supply squeeze due to ongoing mining issues in top producer South Africa, while gold contracts also rose sharply on strong buying by commodity funds. Market watchers had forecast that the global platinum market to be in a slight deficit, even before a power crisis in South Africa crippled mining operations in the world's largest precious metals producer. The country accounts for about 80 percent of the world's output. James Moore, analyst at TheBullionDesk.com in London, told clients in a note that...