Copper

Inmet Mining Corporation (TSX:IMN) has launched a $1 billion senior unsecured notes offering as part of a total finance plan for the $6.18 billion copper/gold/molybdenum project Cobre Panama.

A takeover of the 134-year old LME – responsible for 80% of the global metals futures trade – is expected to become official this week amid talk of manipulation and distorted pricing in the copper market. Some traders are fingering Swiss giant Glencore while others believe China has managed to corner the market.

Authorities in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic of 16.7 million people, are especially wary of labor unrest in single-industry towns after a months-long dispute involving sacked oil workers last year erupted into the country's worst violence in decades.

Wagers on copper increased sevenfold to 15,582, as prices slumped 2.7 percent, the first weekly drop in three. Bullish gold bets climbed 7.9 percent to 116,061, a four-week high.

Video of the event was uploaded by Winnipeg Free Press.

Shares of Chilean miner Antofagasta PLC (LON:ANTO) were down over 4% at 11:20 ET after the company announced yesterday that its first-quarter copper production fell almost 13% amid rising development and maintenance costs.

Mine access roads blockaded by contractors at BHP Billiton's Escondida mine have been re-opened.

Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR) announced today that it was awarded a contract from Teck (NYSE: TCK) to provide engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) services for the Highland Valley Copper Mill Optimization project in British Columbia, Canada.

The Canadian penny will get a ministerial send off when the Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will be on hand to watch the last minting.