Copper prices fell on Wednesday as worries about supply disruptions at the world’s biggest copper mine, Escondida, eased after a deal reduced risk of a labor strike.
BHP Group Ltd and the union at its Escondida copper mine in Chile said they had reached a tentative deal for a new contract, although the union will take two more days to submit the new contract to a vote by workers.
Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange eased 0.4 percent to $9,485.50 a ton while the most-traded September copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchangetracked overnight gains in London to rise 0.8 percent to 69,810 yuan ($10,770.82) a ton.
Meanwhile, A Democrat in the US House of Representatives introduced legislation on Tuesday extending tax credits to companies that domestically produce rare earth magnets, a sector currently dominated by China.
The bill is the latest in a string of US legislation attempting to cobble together a national strategy to produce more lithium, rare earths and other so-called strategic minerals used to make electric vehicles (EVs), weaponry and electronics.
Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, introduced the Rare Earth Magnet Manufacturing Production Tax Credit Act, a bill co-sponsored by Representative Guy Reschenthaler, a Pennsylvania Republican.
The bill sets up a $20 per kilogram credit for neodymium iron boron magnets made in the United States, with the credit growing to $30 per kilogram for magnets made with rare earths sourced from American mines. – Reuters
