Shanghai Futures Exchange copper prices slid further on Monday June 25 as China’s equities markets slumped while the safe-haven US dollar rebounded.

The London Metal Exchange’s board took a giant step towards Asia earlier this month, and perhaps the biggest move in its history, when it approved the £1.39-billion ($2.2 billion) bid from the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEx).

Ural Mining and Metallurgical Co plans to start construction of a copper-nickel mine in the Voronezh region of Russia in 2018.

Will trading metal futures markets be transformed by the liberalisation of financial markets in China more rapidly than anybody expected?

Claire Hack presents her second report from Balkhash, Kazakhstan, where she is visiting Central Asia Metals’ $42 million Kounrad copper project. The facility was decommissioned by Kazakhmys in 2005, and CAML is now planning on leaching 10,000 tpy from the waste heaps.

China is undergoing a process of liberalising its economy, and as the market opens up, new contracts will be launched to meet the demand, says Newedge’s John Browning in an article written for and published by Metal Bulletin's sister publication Futures & Options World (FOW).

Claire Hack reports from Almaty, Kazakhstan, where she has travelled to meet Central Asia Metals as it prepares for the official opening of its Kounrad copper project in eastern Kazakhstan, which is targeting production of 10,000 tpy of copper cathode.

Clive Palmer, the owner of a company involved in Australian mining projects, is planning to build an exact replica of the RMS Titanic and intends calling the oceangoing vessel Titanic II.

Will the 20% of outright three-month business that has recently been done on the London Metal Exchange during the Asian day soon look relatively minuscule?

A private members’ bill tabled in the UK House of Commons last month will propose harsher sentencing for scrap metal thieves and make enforcement of the law easier, MP Graham Jones, who introduced the bill to the House, told Metal Bulletin.