August 12, 1986

Prices of precious metals surged yesterday, fueled by rumors about South Africa and strong demand from a wide range of investors, including the Japanese Government. The biggest jump occurred in platinum, which closed at $547.40 an ounce yesterday, up $27.80, in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, In active trading, spot gold prices closed at $391.40 an ounce yesterday on the Commodity Exchange in New York. Up $15.80 for the day, this was its highest level in about two and a half years. The Republic National Bank in New York quoted gold at $389 an ounce at 4 P.M., $15 higher than Friday.

International Arms control talks in Moscow between American and Soviet officials were described by the head of the American delegation as ''serious'' and ''exploratory.'' The American, Paul H. Nitze, who is arms adviser to Secretary of State George P. Shultz, said the talks would continue today. They are part of an effort to prepare for the next summit meeting. [ Page A1, Column 1. ] Canadian boats picked up castaways described by the Coast Guard officials as Asians. Three fishing boats took aboard 150 men, women and children in a fog off Newfoundland. The Coast Guard said they were adrift for five days. Where they came from was a mystery. [ A1:3. ]

On a trip to Illinois Tuesday to garner farm state support for Republican candidates, President Reagan will announce plans to increase fees paid to farmers for storing surplus grain, Administration sources said today. The measure, increasing the fees by almost 20 percent, would raise the incomes of thousands of farmers in the Middle West and elsewhere who are anticipating near record harvests of wheat, corn and other grains. It would add from $200 million to $300 million to the costs of the Federal farm program, which is anticipated to exceed $30 billion this fiscal year, according to an estimate by the House Agriculture Committee. It was unclear immediately if new Federal funds would be provided or if the money would come from existing programs.

With its partnerships, its old money and its easy arrogance, Bay Street, the hub of the Canadian securities industry here, is reminiscent of Wall Street a decade or two ago. But like Wall Street, Bay Steet is changing its staid ways. ''The game is over for the private club,'' said Austin Taylor, chairman of McLeod Young Weir Ltd., the country's fifth-biggest securities firm and a respected member of the old guard. The government of the province of Ontario, which is home to most of the Canadian financial industry, has proposed loosening restraints, effective Jan. 1, on the ownership of investment houses by foreigners and financial institutions; one proposed change would allow Canada's five leading banks to buy up to 30 percent each of investment houses.

A special panel has found that many of the Veterans Administration's heart surgery units have been performing so few operations that mortality rates were above normal in some cases, and V.A. officials said today that about one-third of them would be closed. ''Procedures for closing them are now being developed,'' Dr. John A. Gronvall, the V.A.'s deputy chief medical director, said in an interview. ''We're now deciding which ones to close.'' Last year the Veterans Administration asked a special panel of outside physicians to investigate the system's 51 heart surgery units. The panel recommended last fall that no unit should perform fewer than 150 open-heart procedures a year because some hospitals performing fewer than that number of procedures had higher-than-average mortality.