Zijin posts record annual profit as gold, copper prices surge

Battery costs to fall 50% - beginning to compete with gas.

Chinese data, tight supply light fire under copper price launching copper mining stocks higher – Freeport up 15%.

It now expects adjusted earnings per share to come in at $5, significantly higher than the $3.75 it had forecast just three months ago and almost doubled the $2.90 it had originally projected for the year.

Zaldívar produced 102,000 tonnes of copper in 2016.

Shares collapsed on the news to close almost 21% lower in London. Barrick, which has a 64% stake in Acacia, also fell in both Toronto and New York.

A hot and dry summer in British Columbia has set forests aflame, and last week the effects of Mother Nature were felt by two prominent BC mines.

Glencore (LON:GLEN) has placed a multi-million-dollar bet on copper by investing just over US$21 million (GBP 16.16 million) into Brazilian copper producer Paranapanema (PMA).

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Friday the country's mining industry pays too little in tax and not enough in compensation for any environmental damage.

Company will make a decision on the plan in August.