Copper wprices will continue to sparkle....and impact...

Copper wprices will continue to sparkle....and impact PNA

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) ? Chile?s giant Collahuasi copper mine, the world?s third largest, has halted shipments indefinitely following an accident at the mine?s ore shipping terminal.

News that the mine had declared force majeure Monday raced through the global metals market Tuesday, sending March copper futures to a record close of $4.28 a pound on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, a 1.7% advance from Monday?s settlement. Read Metals Stocks.

Force majeure is invoked when a company cannot meet its contractual obligations due to circumstances beyond its control, in this case its ability to ship copper-ore concentrate.

Market outlook for 2011Our panel of star strategists expects stocks to rise at least 10% next year, as a U.S. economic recovery accelerates. Clare McKeen reports.
Mine officials said the mishap had not affected Collahuasi?s actual mining operations, but that they are scrambling to find some other way to ship stockpiled copper concentrate from the facility after a shiploader at the Punta Patache port collapsed, reportedly killing three workers. They said they did not know how long shipments would be suspended. Separately, a port official told Reuters it could take at least a month to repair the damaged loading station.

Collahuasi mine is owned by Anglo American PLC /quotes/comstock/23s!e:aal (UK:AAL 3,258, +116.50, +3.71%) and Xstrata PLC /quotes/comstock/23s!a:xta (UK:XTA 1,504, +48.50, +3.33%) .

It was not clear how long it would take to resume copper concentrate shipments from the facility.

?Whilst this is unlikely to have any significant impact on supplies, nevertheless in these supercharged investment and supply constrained times, situations like these take on greater significance than they otherwise would do,? an analyst at RBC?s base metals desk wrote Tuesday in a premarket note.



Reuters

Workers march in support of a strike of Collahuasi copper mine in November.
Copper prices are up sharply this year, driven mostly by strong demand in China, the world?s biggest copper consumer, and a gradual recovery in manufacturing and construction industries elsewhere. In the face of ever tighter supply constraints, many analysts predict copper prices will continue to rise well into 2011.