The contract set a floor price requiring GM at times to buy metals at prices above those on the open market. It also set production volumes, meaning GM had to keep buying a set amount from Stillwater even as its vehicle production fell from 9.2 million cars in 2006 to 8.4 million last year.

The Ford contract has similar terms.

At recent palladium market prices, the contracts had been shielding Stillwater from the equivalent of $57 million in lost annual sales, according to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Norilsk controls 53 percent of Stillwater's stock.

If the Obama administration does not intervene and Stillwater fails to get relief through bankruptcy court, the company would have to file a claim for its losses and line up alongside the automaker's many other creditors.

It's not uncommon in such cases for creditors to walk away with pennies on every dollar owed.

Beyond its GM contract woes, Stillwater Mining has been hit by falling commodity prices that last year led it to shed 16 percent of its work force.

The company in May reported a first-quarter loss of $11.6 million, on revenue of $85.8 million. That's down from a 2008 first-quarter profit of $2.8 million, on revenue of $186.4 million.