Zinc still holding strong, especially in Aussie dollars, and...

Zinc still holding strong, especially in Aussie dollars, and makes our 50k pa production look nice.
Little BHP will pull through this downturn and be ready for the next up leg! Go CSD.

Reuters
Copper edges up; dollar, China concerns limit gains
By REUTERS PUBLISHED: 02:24 AEST, 11 September 2014
UPDATED: 02:24 AEST, 11 September 2014 By Hannah Murphy and Harpreet Bhal

Copper prices rose on Wednesday but remained near a one-month low due to concerns about growth in top consumer China and a strong dollar, while nickel slipped as supply worries eased. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed up 0.44 percent at $6,870 a tonne, after falling more than 2 percent to a near one-month low of $6,821.75 a tonne on Tuesday, under pressure from a strong dollar.

Global shares tumbled on Wednesday as markets strengthened bets on an early U.S. rate hike, while persistent concerns over Scotland's future unnerved investors in Europe, helping a high-flying dollar hold on to recent gains. The dollar was little changed against a basket of currencies, but remained near 14-month highs. A strong dollar makes commodities priced in the U.S. unit more expensive for holders of other currencies.

"Clearly the market was taken aback by the severity of the move yesterday afternoon, that was quite a sharp move and the fear is that there are some unpleasant economic data releases going to be coming out of China over the next few days," said Nic Brown, head of commodities research at Natixis.

Reflecting worries over China's pullback in growth, Premier Li Keqiang said the country would press ahead with efforts to liberalise its currency and interest rate markets even though previous reforms have presented challenges for companies.

NICKEL WEAKNESS PERSISTS
Benchmark LME nickel closed down 0.98 percent to $18,740 a tonne after shedding over 5 percent on Tuesday following the easing of concerns about a squeeze on supply from the Philippines. The metal hit $19,940 on Monday, its highest since July 3, after a Philippine Congressional committee approved a bill seeking to halt exports of unprocessed mineral ores. But the proponent of the bill said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that a proposed ban may not be implemented for about seven years. The Philippines is now the top supplier of nickel ore for China's stainless steel industry following an Indonesian ore export ban from January.

"Our own thoughts were that ... you have a situation in which the nickel market is currently in surplus. But ... you would fully expect there to be a growing deficit later this year and going into 2015 due to the natural seasonality of Philippine output," Brown said. "So when you get a seasonal low in Philippine output later this year and early next year combined with a lack of any exports coming out of Indonesia, you could see quite a sharp deficit emerging in the nickel market."

Aluminium failed to trade in closing open outcry activity and was last bid down 0.48 percent at $2,058 a tonne. Although demand has been strong for aluminium, a legacy of overproduction means there are still 4.7 million tonnes of LME inventories. "While we expect sustained demand momentum in the second half, we see the underlying fundamentals as weak with the first half in surplus of 605,000 tonnes," said Macquarie analyst Yubin Fu in a note. Zinc added 0.17 percent to finish at $2,308 a tonne, lead, shed 0.56 percent to $2,115, while tin failed to trade in closing activity and was bid at $21,000, up 0.5 percent.

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