LONDON: Copper prices were steady on Tuesday, supported by an incident at a major mine in Indonesia and under pressure from a stronger dollar after a key revision to US payrolls numbers.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange was unchanged at USD9,913.50 per metric ton by 1604 GMT.
The dollar index rose 0.3 percent as investors braced for the US inflation data due on Thursday after the payrolls numbers were revised down, suggesting a far weaker labor market than initial numbers showed in the 12-month period through March 2025.
A stronger US currency makes dollar-priced metals less attractive for buyers using other currencies.
Copper, used in power and construction, is up 13 percent so far this year after hitting a five-month high of USD10,038 last week.
“Demand for copper is still pretty strong because China is doing quite well as was shown by Monday’s export-import data.
It is the rest of the world that is causing a concern,” said Dan Smith at Commodity Market Analytics.
Freeport-McMoRan said it had temporarily halted mining in Indonesia’s Grasberg, one of the world’s largest copper mines, after a large flow of wet material blocked access to parts of the underground mine, restricting evacuation routes for seven workers.
Miner Anglo American and Canada’s Teck Resources are to merge, the two companies said on Tuesday, in what would be the biggest mining sector M&A deal in over a decade.
The two companies operate adjacent copper mines in Chile.
Meanwhile, LME aluminium rose 0.2 percent to USD2,623 a ton with daily LME data showing that available aluminium inventories in the LME-registered warehouses fell to 375,025 tons, their two-month low, after 67,400 tons of fresh cancellations in Malaysia.
LME zinc fell 0.6 percent to USD2,858.5, lead lost 0.7 percent to USD1,977, tin slid 0.4 percent to USD34,025, while nickel dipped 0.7 percent to USD15,120.
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