Lead up on Australian pollution inquiry

Base metals prices were mixed Friday.

Copper prices were lower again in London, but rose slightly in New York trade.

The decline in London came even though stockpiles in London Metal Exchange warehouses were down another 1.1 percent on the day to 97,550 tonnes, their lowest level in a year and down 47 percent from where they were at the beginning of 2007.

LME prices were down $15 to $7,810 per tonne.

In New York, however, September copper on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange had added 1 cent to trade at $3.59 per pound.

Nickel was also lower in London, dropping $375 to $32,825 per tonne on higher LME inventories, which are now up 55 percent on the year so far.

Lead was up $25 to $3,005 per tonne in late afternoon trade on the LME after earlier rising to $3,040 per tonne, another new record high price.

The price of lead has gone up 80 percent so far this year on stopped shipments due to pollution inquiries at several ports in Australia.

Other metals seeing price gains on the session in London were aluminium, up $2.50 to $2,802.50 per tonne.

Zinc was $11 higher to $3,557 per tonne, while tin added $45 to $14,150 per tonne.