Metals prices mixed in London, New York

Prices were mixed Wednesday for both precious and base metals.

March copper was up 5 cents to $3.40 per pound in New York trade while three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped $50 to $7,417.50 per tonne after Codelco, the state-owned copper miner in Chile, said it will put $2.3 billion into getting at new supplies at existing mines, up 12 percent from whatr it spent last year..

The miner owns around one-third of all proven reserves of copper in the world.

Other LME base metals prices were mixed, with aluminium and nickel up but lead, tin and zinc all lower on the session.

Meanwhile, among precious metals, February gold added $8.60 to $1,138 per troy ounce in New York trade, while March silver was up 15 cents to $18.40 per troy ounce, but April platinum dropped $2.60 to $1,567 per troy ounce.