* Small price shift can have bigger impact on overall value
* Under contract with Johnson Matthey sold at slightdiscount
* Copper benefits less from marketing drive
* Gold for marriage, platinum for love
By Barbara Lewis
LONDON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Anglo American hasboosted its platinum margins by as much as 5 percent afterrelaunching its customer relationships and ending an exclusivemarketing contract with Johnson Matthey, CEO MarkCutifani said on Monday.
Big miners are looking for ways to add shareholder value andextend a recovery that has made them the top gainers on London'sblue chip FTSE share index this year. Anglo American'sshares have rebounded more than 270 percent since January.
CEOs have mostly ruled out large-scale deals to acquire newbusinesses following last year's commodity price crash that leftthem having to sell assets to drive down debt.
"What I want to do and what we have been doing is to applylessons," Cutifani told Reuters. "The lessons of how you connectwith your customers."
Following Cutifani's appointment as CEO in 2013, AngloAmerican ended a relationship under which Johnson Matthey hadsold all Anglo American's platinum directly to customers.
In return for a guaranteed buyer, Anglo American sold at adiscount to the spot market. Now it sells at a slight premium.
Cutifani said there had been a 5 percent shift in therealised price of some of the platinum Anglo American sells, 3percent overall and in other cases 2 percent.
The impact on cash flows translates into a bigger overallboost.
"A five percent improvement in realised prices on a marginof 25 percent is a 20 percent improvement in the value of thecompany," Cutifani said, adding he was speaking in generalterms, not just for platinum.
Anglo American also set up a marketing business in Londonand Singapore and transformed its customer relationships,Cutifani said.
Platinum's prime uses include catalytic converters in carsand jewellery, which can borrow almost directly from theapproach of De Beers' and its "A Diamond is Forever" advertisingstrategy.
"What we've said in the Indian market is you buy gold whenyou get married, but when you fall in love you buy platinum,"Cutifani said.
Copper is the other commodity on which Anglo American isfocused.
The techniques that work for platinum and diamonds do nothelp to sell a metal whose standout quality is being anexcellent conductor.
"We see the opportunity to do better on copper, but theimprovement is not as significant," Cutifani said, adding itcould add 2-to-3 percent to the margin.
One way is to blend products. If gold, often found withcopper, is below a threshold level, Anglo American cannot sellit, but a blend can take the gold presence above the threshold,effectively boosting the price for which the copper is sold.
Cutifani's strategy of keeping a core group of assets inwhich it is a global leader and gradually selling assets in bulkindustrial commodities has been challenged by some shareholders,notably the biggest, South Africa's state-owned PublicInvestment Corp.
Cutifani said he continued "to engage very constructivelywith all of our shareholders".
Anglo American's core commodities have barely moved comparedwith a more than 200 percent rise in coking coal and a roughly30 percent climb in iron ore this year.
Platinum prices have risen some 10 percent in 2016 toroughly $980 an ounce, but are trading at less than halftheir 2008 peak. A Reuters poll last week forecast a modestuptick in 2017. (Additional reporting by Jan Harvey; Editing by Susan Fenton)