The World Platinum Investment Council (WPIC) and Valcambi last week announced a partnership to increase the availability of platinum bar and coin products in the global retail market, marking the latest in a series of new strategic initiatives by the world platinum body to stimulate further investor demand for physical platinum and increase the scope of platinum investment opportunities available worldwide.

Created in 2014 by South African platinum producers Anglo American Platinum, Aquarius, Impala Platinum, Lonmin, Northam and Royal Bafokeng Platinum, the WPIC’s mission is to stimulate global investor demand for physical platinum.

Recent collaboration between the world platinum body and Valcambi – which produces bars and coins at its large precious metals operation in Switzerland – resulted in improved platinum bar and coin availability and sales in Asia and Europe.

The world platinum investment body said in a release to Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly that it would act as Valcambi’s funding, stocking and marketing partner, using the precious metals refiner’s networks to increase the availability of retail platinum bar and coin products to investors globally.

Valcambi would mint in sizes ranging from 1 g to 1 000 g and sell through online and high street dealers worldwide, focusing initially on the US retail market, where significant demand for physical platinum products was apparent.

Through the partnership, both organisations would offer investors access to a wide variety of bars and coins at a “very competitive premium and narrow bid/offer spread”, while also providing prospective investors with insight into why investing in platinum suited their investment needs.

“We believe this partnership is a crucial step in helping to address the gap in the market for platinum investment products, particularly in the US, where investors currently have limited access to platinum,” WPIC market development director Marcus Grubb commented, describing Valcambi as “a world-class global refiner, renowned for its high-quality minted products”.

Grubb is a former MD of investment strategy at the World Gold Council.

Valcambi CEO Michael Mesaric, in turn, hailed the WPIC as an organisation with “unparalleled knowledge and insights into the platinum mar- ket”, which foresaw increased availability of existing and new platinum products resulting in possible incremental yearly demand of between 50 000 oz and 100 000 oz.

In January, the Singapore Bullion Market Association approved the WPIC as a foreign associate corporate member and, in late 2015, the world platinum investment organisation entered into an exclusive agreement with South Africa's Rand Merchant Bank to extend the global availability of the Bullion Coin Custodial Certificate, a new product that provides investors with a cost-effective method of buying and owning platinum coins.

Judging from its website, the 55-year-old Valcambi, located on a 33 ha site in Balerna, Switzerland, places strong emphasis on crafts-manship, transparency, traceability and reli-ability.