According to Platt s Metals Alert , Mr. Ignatiev says that authorization of quotas for the export of platinum are unlikely before March because of the continuing rivalry between the Central Bank of Russia, platinum producers, and Moscow banks. In order to do that, the quotas for commercial banks and producers should be delayed, and reduced. The company is nevertheless going forward with its aggressive fuel cell development plans. The company recently announced plans to invest EUR1 Billion in further fuel cell technology development by 2004, and to deliver its first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, to Germany's Hermes Versand Service this year. DaimlerChrysler's development of fuel cell technology has created more than 1,000 jobs in Germany.
Platinum is a key component to current automotive fuel cell designs.
The molds contained 270 kilograms of platinum, and were used by St. Petersburg's Vavilov Optical Research Institute to make lenses, police spokesman Alexander Rostovtsev told AP . While 270 kilograms itself is not a tremendous amount of platinum, the story does illustrate, in an unfortunate manner, one of the many dozens of scientific and research applications for which platinum is routinely used.