http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushveld_igneous_complex

High platinum prices drive the surge of juniors

China's Zijin buys Ridge Mining stake to gain SA foothold

Mitsubishi backs Jubilee in SA platinum project

Ruthenium to punch through $1,000

I'm quite heavily into shares in juniors operating in the Bushveld, hedged against a crash with puts. Bushveld juniors have done very well recently, and would imo be a good buy if a crash brings prices down.

Platinum is mentioned towards the end of Puplava's radio show this week: http://www.netcastdaily.com/broadcast/fsn2007-0331-1.mp3 - The interviewee mentions the main downside risk in the Bushveld Complex - South African politics.

Living in the UK is quite advantageous re: investing in the Bushveld because, due to our historical likes with SA, the majors are all listed in London along with many of the minors.

scuse me being such a dumbarse, but dont the puts cancel out any gain you make?

No, I only spend a fraction of the gains from the shares on puts. You can trade puts, too. They're cheap when the markets are high and expensive when it is falling. It's possible to average down. I do buy very cheap ones at e.g. FTSE 5000-5500, so they're just serious crash insurance really. It's a bit like house insurance being cheap in relation to the cost of rebuilding your house, becasue it's unlikely to happen. Won't keep on buying them for ever, my complete guess is that there will be more falls this year and then the central banks will reinflate to avoid a deflationary depression.

I'm no authority on the subject, I'm new to using puts. After Bubbs' thread I bough a few and sold a couple of them on the steep dip, using the profits to buy some more shares.

Bushveld juniors have been given quite a boost by the Swiss PGM ETF announcement. The majors have apparently forward sold much of their production already, so are p!ssed off about the new ETF because they won't greatly benefit...

http://www.miningmx.com/platinum/776354.htm

Who do you currently use to trade shares and puts?

Pretty much only buy UK certificated shares - don't like the idea of my shares in a nominee account being shorted against me, and it's more appealing as a paranoid doomster to hold actual certificates. This is one of the reasons I like AIM shares. Others include:
- CGT advantages (if held for a couple of years)
- the lack of general interest in AIM mining shares - all bugs around the world are buying Canadian listed ones
- quite a lot of money is limited to the UK market (UK small companies funds, pension funds), some of which has started to enter the AIM mining market already
- UK's historical links to South Africa means a lot of SA stuff is listed in London only
I'm not bovvered about the large spreads because I plan to hold most shares for years, not really trade them.

Mostly use Hargreaves Lansdown classic share dealing as it's the cheapest certificated dealer I've found @ £15 per trade, and igindex for buying puts.

Don't fully trust igindex anymore. The price of puts shot up ridiculously high first thing on thursday morning and I sold 2, making £4k profit. I was phoned up a couple of minutes later to be told that the deals were being cancelled as it was a pricing error.

Wad, in this post, says: