South Korea’s UBS Hana Asset Management, majority owned by the world’s largest wealth manager, said on Tuesday it will start a 260 billion won fund in December that will invest in a Madagascar nickel mine. South Korea’s government has decided to grant tax breaks to the fund, which will invest more than 70 percent of [...]

Xstrata plc, the fourth-largest copper and nickel producer in the world, has agreed to sell aluminium plants and a bauxite mine to New York-based Apollo Management LP for US$1.15 billion as it focuses on more profitable commodities.
The operations in the US and Jamaica were acquired by Switzerland-based Xstrata in 2006 when it bought Canada`s Falconbridge [...]

Ever wonder who the top uranium miners are? Here are top 10 uranium-producing countries by tonnes U, and the top 5 uranium miners by market capitalization. You’ll notice some interesting relationships in the country data, and may recognize a name or two in the market cap section. These are just some ideas to get [...]

Base metals prices paused on Friday as the market took stock after the recent rally, but analysts said copper prices were likely to forge higher on stronger Chinese demand.
However, traders said a Lunar New Year holiday in China next week and the Presidents’ Day holiday in the United States on Monday could curb activity and [...]

Copper and other key industrial metals prices were firm on the London Metal Exchange on Friday as traders assessed the likelihood of fresh Chinese buying.
“We’ve seen copper correcting then holding at a level, but our view is that there will be Chinese buying after their New Year holidays,” a fund manager said.
Copper ended the day [...]

Copper futures in Shanghai were little changed as falling stockpiles helped the industrial metal to recover from an earlier drop to a 10-month low amid concern that losses at a metals-trading hedge fund could trigger more selling.
Global copper inventories monitored by exchanges in London, New York and Shanghai have fallen 1.3 percent to 269,385 metric [...]

Copper futures at the New York Mercantile Exchange sank rapidly to a more than 10-month low Friday.
The most active copper contract, for March delivery, settled down 10.75 cents at $2.4230 per pound. It reached the weakest level since late March at $2.3850.
Dan Vaught, a futures analyst at AG Edwards, said the market suffered amid follow-through [...]

Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third- largest mining company by sales, may say second-half profit rose 19 percent to a record as commodity prices soared last year and iron-ore production grew.
Net income advanced to $3.72 billion in the six months ended Dec. 31, from $3.03 billion a year earlier, according to the median estimate of [...]

U.K. mining stocks fell, led by Kazakhmys Plc and Anglo American Plc. ITV Plc and Kelda Group Plc paced advancing shares.
The benchmark FTSE 100 Index added 0.5, or less than 0.1 percent, to 6240.40 in London at 8:13 a.m. The FTSE All-Share Index slipped 0.1 to 3225.14. Ireland’s ISEQ Index fell 9.21 to 9313.17.
Kazakhmys, Kazakhstan’s [...]

Copper rose steeply Thursday and nickel reached another record high after China, the world’s largest consumer of industrial metals, said that its economy expanded at the fastest pace in 11 years.
Gross domestic product in China expanded 10.4 per cent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said. The economy [...]