Gold drops 0.3 percent

Precious metals prices were mixed on Tuesday as investors waited for US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to make comments later in the day. Gold dropped 0.3 percent to $638.70 per troy ounce, while silver added 0.3 percent to $13.50 per troy ounce and platinum was 1.3 percent higher to $1,150 per troy ounce.

Base metals were also mixed. Aluminium was a bit higher to $2,704 per tonne as London Metal Exchange inventories dropped by 1,225 tonnes and Alcoa said that China’s consumption of the metal would likely rise by 14 percent over the next two years. Lead was also slightly higher, to $1,584 per tonne, on expectations that output from China to go up 16 percent to 2.7 million tonnes this year. Tin added 1 percent to $10,250 per tonne as PT Timah said its output will likely drop by 8.1 percent this year.

Zinc was 2.2 percent lower to $4,380 even though LME stockpiles were down by 1,025 tonnes, as China’s output is expected to go up by 12 percent this year. Copper dropped 2.5 percent to $6,975 per tonne, again even though LME inventories were down, due to an expected increase in output from China.