updated mnut fcast, page-15

re: silver set to hit $12.00... March 31, 2006
LONDON: Copper closed at a record high on the London Metal Exchange on Wednesday, after a late surge of buying, with the market soon expected to test $US6000 ($8450) a tonne.

"Copper is going up. It's anyone's guess by how much or how quickly, but it looks like it is going to get to $US6000 easily," one LME dealer said.

In New York, silver topped $US11 an ounce for the first time since 1983 and gold rallied on demand by investors seeking better returns than equities or bonds.

ME copper finished at a new all-time high of $US5340 a tonne, recovering from an early low of $US5258.50 and compared with its close of $US5315 a tonne on Tuesday.

"Most of the activity was done on the way down. On the way back up there were very few sellers. Trade is light and it looks like the funds took advantage of one of the thin periods to drive the market up," a second dealer said.

Copper has risen over 20 per cent since the end of 2005, supported by a series of supply threats and low stock levels.

A strike at Grupo Mexico's 300,000 tonne-a-year La Caridad copper mine, landslides and environmental problems in Indonesia and a threatened strike at Zambia's Kansanshi copper mine, had kept copper prices bubbling, analysts said.

"Copper has got support from the strike in Mexico and the recent events in Indonesia," Angus MacMillan, a minerals strategist at Bache Financial, said.