Nickel shortage in view unless China-led projects in Indonesia succeed — analysts

Copper futures retreated Thursday, snapping Wednesday’s rally to a three-month high, as negative sentiment over China’s economic future outweighed better-than-expected US manufacturing data.

Growth ground to a halt in the euro zone's private sector this month while China's factory sector contracted for the first time in a year, surveys showed on Thursday, deepening evidence of a sharp slowdown in the global economy. The surveys were published just before European leaders meet for a crisis summit to hash out a second bailout of Greece and allay fears a debt default by Athens will poison access to the bond market for bigger states. Image is by Malene Thyssen.

When news broke Thursday last week that China was raising REE export quotas for the second half of the year, ostensibly in reaction to a WTO ruling, it was greeted with some surprise and a measure of relief by the makers of anything from iPods to lasers to stealth helicopters. But as the implications of the announcement on future pricing of the 17 elements begin to sink in some analysts are pointing out that rather than easing the pressure on manufacturers who need rare earths, China's move was aimed at cutting off at the knees development of mining projects outside its borders.

The recent Chilean mine disaster has sparked new fresh debate in China regarding work safety and rescue work in the domestic mining industry. China has made huge steps to improve mine safety in recent years, reducing the number of deaths to approximately 2,600 in 2009 from 7,000 in 2003 even though coal output has more than doubled.

NineMSN reports that shares in Meridian Minerals (ASX:MII)jumped after a Chinese state-owned entity, revealed plans to takeover: Shares in Meridian Minerals jumped after the junior explorer's largest shareholder, a Chinese state-owned entity, revealed plans for a $67.5 million takeover offer. Meridian shares were up one cent, or 8.7 per cent, at 12.5 cents at 1343 AEST after an earlier high of 13 cents.

Copper hit its highest since mid-April on Tuesday on better-than-expected U.S. housing data, a weaker dollar and hopes Chinese demand will remain firm, helping offset investor anxiety over U.S. and European sovereign debt concerns.

Need proof that stakeholder relations can be fraught? See this recently uploaded YouTube video of Siveru Soma, an Indian MP, who was chased away and beaten up by a mob of women who were protesting a Chinese clay mining project in Visakhapatnam district.

Copper hit its highest since mid-April on Tuesday as a weaker dollar and hopes Chinese demand will remain firm helped offset investor anxiety over US and European sovereign debt concerns. Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange (LME) traded at $9,800.25 a tonne by 0825 GMT compared with Monday's close of $9,694 a tonne.

China's Sichuan Hanlong Group made a bid to buy out the shares it doesn't already own in West African iron ore exploration company Sundance Resources, valuing the private conglomerate at A$1.4 billion ($1.5 billion). Last week, Hanlong, which is seeking to expand its reach in global resources, launched a A$144 million takeover bid for Bannerman Resources, which is looking for uranium in Namibia.