RIA Novosti reported that the upper house of the Russian parliament approved recently amendments to a law abolishing a state monopoly on platinum exports.
Mr Yevgeny Bushmin, chairman of the Federation Council Budget Committee, said that the amendments scrapped a provision in the current legislation whereby Russian producers may only export platinum and platinum group metals through the state owned Almazjuvelirexport trade association.
He added that the current export scheme violates Russian antitrust laws and is at odds with the global trade system, weakening Russian platinum producers’ positions on world markets.
Russia is the world’s second largest platinum producer after South Africa. Paper said that Russia had begun developing major new platinum deposits for the first time since the Soviet era. Reserves at the Kievei field on north Russia’s Kola Peninsula have been estimated at up to 250 metric tons. Earlier, Forbes said that Russian platinum supplies could decline this year to 855,000 ounces compared with 910,000 ounces in 2007.

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