Platinum prices surge

Metals prices were mixed Thursday, with precious metals prices up and base metals mostly on the decline.

June gold added $10.80 to $882 per troy ounce while July silver was up 27 cents to $16.96 per troy ounce and July platinum surged $73.30 to $2,042.30 per troy ounce.

Precious metals prices rose as the dollar weakened after the European Central Bank and Bank of England both held interest rates steady and as oil prices fell slightly but remained near record territory.

Among base metals, copper dropped 5 cents to $3.79 per pound in New York while the metal fell $130 to $8,300 per tonne on the London Metal Exchange after China refrained from purchases in hopes that prices will drop even further.

LME copper inventories added 1 percent on the session to 110,125 tonnes.

Zinc was down $32 to $2,320 per tonne while aluminium dropped $49 to $2,875 per tonne, lead fell $100 to $2,300 per tonne and nickel was $800 lower to $27,700 per tonne.

Tin bucked the trend and advanced to $24,500 per tonne on the session.