Unionised workers at Codelco's Chuquicamata copper mine, one of the world's largest, said they would walk off their job beginning Friday after the firm did not meet their key requests, including health care, fair treatment and retirement benefits.
Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) rose 0.3pc to $5873,50 a tonne by 0151 GMT and was on track for its first weekly gain since the week ended April 12.
The most active Shanghai copper contract rose 0.4pc to 46,580 yuan ($6,730.82) a tonne.
FUNDAMENTALS
Copper inventories at warehouses tracked by the LME jumped to 248,550 tonnes as of Wednesday, the highest since September 2018, latest data showed.
Zambia will fine and break ties with mining firms that fail to operate according to the southern African country's laws, President Edgar Lungu said on Thursday, escalating a dispute with India-listed Vedanta.
Benchmark nickel rose 0.4pc, while Shanghai nickel increased 1.5pc amid worries that floods in Indonesia could disrupt supplies of nickel. Other metals were mixed.
European lithium projects are making a fresh push for capital, eager to supply the white metal to a burgeoning network of battery manufacturers and electric vehicle makers across the continent, the world's second-largest EV market after China.
MARKETS NEWS
Asian stocks held their ground after Wall Street gained on a surge in oil prices as attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman stoked US-Iran tensions and raised concerns over supply flows through one of the world's main sea lanes.