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LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Copper prices slid to six-month lows on Monday as a strengthening dollar triggered a sell-off ina market already worrying about weak demand from top consumers China and the United States. Copper for delivery in three months MCU3 hit $7,315 a tonne on the London Metal Exchange, the lowest since early February, before closing at $7,330 down from Friday's $7,410. "The correction that we are seeing is really a reflection ofthe slowdown of the global economy," said Ashok Shah, chief investment officer at London & Capital. He said weakness in industrial production would continue to weigh on metals as demand was seen slowing and as more investors unwound long positions. "I would expect some more speculative money to be exiting."

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Lonmin shares surged on Wednesday after Swiss rival Xstrata launched an unsolicited $10 billion takeover bid for the platinum producer, with the move sparking gains across the entire London-listed mining sector. Lonmin (UK:LMI: news, chart, profile) shares traded 46.9% higher at 34.06 pounds, above the 33 pounds a share that Xstrata said it's prepared to pay to take control of the platinum producer in order to boost its own production of the metal.

A new era for commodities Cheap resources underpinned economic growth for much of the 20th century. The 21st will be different. NOVEMBER 2011 * Richard Dobbs, Jeremy Oppenheim, and Fraser Thompson Source: McKinsey Global Institute, Sustainability & Resource Productivity Practice In This Article Exhibit: In little more than a decade, soaring commodity prices have erased a century of steady declines. About the authors Comments (2) Has the global economy entered an era of persistently high, volatile commodity prices? Our research shows that during the past eight years alone, they have undone the decline of the previous century, rising to levels not seen since the early 1900s (exhibit). In addition, volatility is now greater than at any time since the oil-shocked 1970s because commodity prices increasingly move in lockstep. Our analysis suggests that they will remain high and volatile for at least the next 20 years if current trends hold-barring a major macroeconomic shock-as global resource markets oscillate in response to surging global demand and inelastic supplies. Back to top Demand for energy, food, metals, and water should rise inexorably as three billion new middle-class consumers emerge in the next two decades.1 The global car fleet, for example, is expected almost to double, to 1.7 billion, by 2030. In India, we expect calorie intake per person to rise by 20 percent during that period, while per capita meat consumption in China could increase by 60 percent, to 80 kilograms (176 pounds) a year. Demand for urban infrastructure also will soar. China, for example, could annually add floor space totaling 2.5 times the entire residential and commercial square footage of the city of Chicago, while India could add floor space equal to another Chicago every year. Such dramatic growth in demand for commodities actually isn't unusual. Similar factors were at play throughout the 20th century as the planet's population tripled and demand for various resource

"Copper is losing about 2 percent a year of demand to less costly materials such as aluminum, or about 500,000 tons, London-based researcher CRU estimates. Aluminum is a third the cost of copper and supplies of aluminum in warehouses monitored by the London Metal Exchange are almost 12 times higher."

SINGAPORE, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Shanghai copper fell around 2 percent on Monday but it lagged behind a 4.5 percent slide in London prices after big jumps in inventories on Friday. But prices in London bounced on Monday, lifted by gains in other other commodity markets as the dollar lost ground against the euro after the U.S. government on Sunday seized control of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae (nyse: FNM - news - people ) and Freddie Mac (nyse: FRE - news - people ), which own or guarantee half of all U.S. mortgages. LME copper rose $75 or 1.1 percent, to $6,975 at 0232 GMT, while Shanghai November copper dropped 1,030 yuan to 55,630 yuan ($8,130) and earlier touched a nine-month low.

"Offences involving copper theft in London shot up 85 percent last year to 1,516 from 816 in 2009, data from New Scotland Yard showed on Friday."

The Butterfly Houses project in Thailand, designed by Norwegian non-profit architectural practice TYIN Tegnestue, has been shortlisted under the social justice category for the Earth Awards 2010 to be held in London on 16 September 2010.

Copper prices tumbled to a five-week low Thursday on expectations that falling demand from China and a slowdown in the U.S. housing market will lead to a surplus of the metal. Other commodities traded mixed, with crude oil rebounding slightly and gold, silver and soybeans falling. Corn and wheat futures rose. China, the world's biggest buyer of copper, has been importing less of the metal since the completion of most major construction projects heading into the Beijing summer Olympics. Copper imports in June fell 20 percent compared to May, China's custom's agency said this month. As a result, stockpiles of the metal have swelled in Shanghai and London, helping drive down prices.

Copper rose to the highest in almost three weeks in London on a continued...

"Andre Gibbs, a partner at developer Argent, said the power supply for a scheme his firm was building at King's Cross had to come from two miles away, across central London. "The whole process of getting that infrastructure in the ground was a quite a long and tortuous one, and was expensive," he said."

""On a fundamental basis, at the moment, the market is still extremely well supplied with material," Matthew Wonnacott, a senior consultant at CRU Group in London, said in a telephone interview. "There's really no reason why anybody should need to withdraw material from an exchange for consumption. Demand in the market is just disappointing this year. It's not just China, in general demand is poor.""

LONDON - Nickel hit a two-year low Friday as worries about \ndemand from stainless steel mills mounted, while copper managed to end in \npositive territory despite growing fears of a global economic slowdown.

LONDON, July 30 (Reuters) - Mining group Xstrata posted a 1.1 percent fall in first-half mined copper output and a 6.1 percent fall in mined nickel production on Wednesday.

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN) Tuesday said it expects copper treatment and refining charges to continue falling.

Ireland's OpenHydro and Germany's RWE are spending millions to try to turn the power of waves into electricity With oil prices hitting almost daily record highs and global warming climbing up the public agenda, the need for alternative energy sources has never been more urgent. But while wind and solar have dominated the recent rush to invest in renewables, market watchers reckon it could now be marine energy's turn to shine. Ocean power-using the energy from waves or tidal flows to produce electricity-is quickly coming of age as a viable green resource that could help meet ambitious global targets to reduce greenhouse gases and dependency on fossil fuels. European and North American power companies such as Canada's Emera (EMA.TO) and Germany's RWE (RWEG.DE) are spending millions to fund wind and tidal projects. This investment has led to a new generation of more efficient technologies, with dozens of prototypes expected to be ready for commercial deployment within the next five years. "There's huge interest in both wave and tidal technology," says Thomas Boeckmann, clean tech analyst at market research firm StrategyEye in London. "It's gaining a lot of attention from energy companies, which will be able to offer financial backing and technical expertise to these startups."

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- A pre-feasibility study at the Pebble copper project in Alaska is underway, with assessment of all options expected during 2009, the project's joint venture partner Anglo American PLC (AAUK) said Thursday.