The price of platinum has sagged by as much as the price of gold has risen, and threatening to catch up to platinum now is kindred metal palladium, the price of which has been touching the $800/oz mark. Perhaps it is time for platinum to take a cue from manganese, which cut its output and saw its price return to economic levels. The last-man-standing approach is folly, as the Australian iron-ore producers learnt at their peril. Giving away a national patrimony at below cost does not benefit anyone, not even the market, because a spiking of the price is the eventual upshot, which has users clamouring for alternatives.