Beijing may dump state metal stocks on overheating markets and is cracking down on speculation as producer inflation hits 12-year high.

The company has a growth initiative in place at each of its core copper operations comprising four operating mines.

The deal will ease concerns over a potential stoppage that would have further tightened global supplies of the metal.

China's major copper smelters reduced output by 4.34% in May from a month earlier to 765,100 tonnes as several of them carried out maintenance.

Socialist Pedro Castillo was closing in on victory in Peru's presidential election on Thursday, holding a slim lead of some 63,000 votes over conservative rival Keiko Fujimori.

The East Ridge discovery is outside the current resources.

Daniel Jadue, the current front-runner in polls for November’s elections in Chile, wants to align mining rules with Peru, Argentina and Bolivia so they don’t compete for investments.