Copper prices higher as lead declines

Base metals prices were mixed on Wednesday.
Copper was up 1 cent to $3.56 per pound, a gain of 0.3 percent on the day that brought the metal’s price gain this year to 23 percent despite recent declines.

In London meanwhile, three-month copper added $60 to $7,825 per tonne as inventories in London Metal Exchange warehouses dropped by 775 tonnes to 98,625 tonnes.

Prices were higher on worries that output will decline further amid continuing worker protests in Latin America.

At one mine in Chile, workers blocked entrances in the third day of protests.

Tin prices also climbed, adding $589 to $14,889 per tonne after the Bolivian government seized a smelter owned by a Swiss company.

On the other hand, the price of three-month lead dropped $25 to $3,185 per tonne in late afternoon trade in London after having gone as high as $3,260 per tonne, a new record high.

Analysts said that the price decline came because recent gains have been too extreme, despite supply concerns amid shipment postponements in Australia and a smelter explosion in Missouri.

In other base metals, nickel added $560 to $32.550 per tonne, while aluminium and zinc each declined $26 dollars to $2,772 per tonne and $3,469 per tonne respectively.