Copper prices will average more than $4 a pound this year, says Diego Hernandez, head of Chilean mining society.

Vale CEO Eduardo Bartolomeo said an investigation would be launched into what happened.

The company has been awarded three new concessions, one of which covers a deposit with more than 300,000 tonnes of copper.

The fourth-quarter floor is up 27.3% from $55 per tonne and 5.5 cents a pound in the third quarter.

Teck Resources' Copper & Heath program installs copper products on buses, subway cars, and streetcars in the Greater Toronto Area as well as buses and SkyTrains in Metro Vancouver.

The updated feasibility is based on a 93% increase in contained copper in reserves at the project since the initial study.

The contract, signed in 2008, promised a $3.2 billion investment by China in a copper/cobalt mine and another $3 billion worth of infrastructure projects.