1.   About a fifth of all platinum sales take place in the EU, giving the commission a say in what happens in the industry, Van Miert said.

2.   Russian platinum production already was expected to fall short of Russian platinum sales this year, causing stockpiles to decline.

3.   Dealers are concerned about the growth in platinum sales by Russia, which has large strategic stocks of the metal, GNI trading house said.

4.   The group accounts for almost a quarter of world platinum sales.

5.   The market, which had already suffered from the threat of a doubling of platinum sales from Russia, followed gold downwards.