Palladium hits 6-1/2-yr high at $500 an ounce

SINGAPORE, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Palladium jumped to its highest level in more than six years on Thursday on speculative buying driven by firm sister metal platinum amid persistent supply problems in main producer South Africa.

Spot palladium <XPD=> rose to $500/505 an ounce form $481/484 an ounce late in New York on Wednesday.

Spot platinum <XPT=> rose to $2,142/2,149 an ounce from $2,120/2,130 an ounce late in New York. It rallied to a record high at $2,160 an ounce on Tuesday.

Platinum surged this year after mines in South Africa, which account for 80 percent of the world's supply, ground to a halt for five days at the height of last month's power crisis.

(Reporting by Lewa Pardomuan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)