Nine Peruvian workers trapped underground at Peru’s Cabeza de Negro, 330km from Lima, were freed on Wednesday April 11, to a rapturous reception by rescuers, the press and Peruvian president Ollanta Humala (centre, waving).

If miners in Indonesia are unhappy about the government proposal to ban them from exporting ores, they were careful not to show it too openly at a meeting with senior government officials on Tuesday, February 28.

The London Metal Exchange has received “a good number of bids” for the board to consider at its meeting on Thursday February 23.

A huge order to sell copper at 03:15 UK time on Thursday February 9 whacked London Metal Exchange markets very hard, with copper losing around 1.5% of its value in a matter of seconds.

Glenstrata, X-Core, Davenberg, Mivan? Whatever the result of the Glencore-Xstrata merger is to be called, finding a name is an inevitable step after the IPO.

Edward Meir, formerly of MF Global and now of INTL FCStone, has scooped first place on the overall leaderboard for price forecasts in base metals during 2011, with 95.8% accuracy across all six.

Metal Bulletin has been tracking the forecasts of base metal analysts against the subsequent performance of prices on the London Metal Exchange for over a year. Here, we bring you the overall leaderboard for 2011, which shows the five most accurate analysts across all six base metals, as well as the 2011 leaderboards for aluminium, copper, lead, nickel, tin and zinc.

The metals research team at Deutsche Bank took second place on the overall Apex leaderboard for price forecasts in base metals during 2011, with 94.1% accuracy across all six base metals traded on the London Metal Exchange.

Deutsche Bank is advising clients to look at trading pairs of metals, instead of taking a single position, in order to mitigate risk as volatility in the global economy continues.

Price forecasts for base metals are becoming less and less credible and are not a market driving force, as short term volatility continues to overshadow trading movements, Edward Meir, senior commodity analyst at INTL FCStone, told Metal Bulletin