Resource from Contracts for Difference: Platinum is incredibly tough and a very rare metal; rarer than silver or gold in fact. The price of platinum tends to increase in stable economic times and sometimes can be as much as twice the price of gold. In recent months, platinum has been trading at a lower level than gold, something that it hasn't done for 20 years.

South Africa is the world's largest producer of platinum, with the largest known reserves of platinum coming from the Bushveld Complex, in North of Pretoria.

While silver, gold and platinum are all precious metals they are have different factors that will influence their prices.

Gold has a physical monetary value and therefore in times of recession it become what is known as a safe-haven and will become increasingly popular as other asset classes lose value and their appeal.

Silver too is a monetary metal but it is also used heavily in manufacturing and its means its price is more volatile than gold. If global demand for manufactured goods falls as it might do during a recession the demand and the price for silver is likely to fall.
On the other hand platinum has never been perceived as a monetary metal and its main value is derived from its use in industry. So, unlike gold it is not used as a haven against riskier assets during recessionary periods its use is more in the production of many key consumer items from computers to catalytic converters in automobiles. When demand for these goods fall then so too the demand for the materials used in their production. There are other issues for platinum too mainly the disruptions to the supply chain in the car industry caused by the earthquake in Japan and ballooning of the cost €" through rising energy prices €" of its extraction.

Therefore, all these issues mean that price of platinum is relatively weak when compared to gold right now. Don't forget that demand for gold is massive too as investors continue to seek a haven away from the uncertainty created by the sovereign debt crisis in the eurozone and the weak economic growth of so many of the advanced economies.
It's difficult to see the demand for gold changing in the near future as the eurozone's debt troubles show signs of escalating beyond Greece into Italy and Spain and the US continuing to struggle to show signs of real economic improvement.

However, if the supply of platinum falls due to rising energy costs and the Japanese economy continues to recover and China recovers from its recent blip in growth it might be worth keeping an eye on platinum.