Rio Tinto's (LN:RIO) Australian shares gained 1.5% as the giant announced board member Simon Thompson would replace Jan du Plessis as chairman in March.

The diversified miner also held an investor day in Sydney where it outlined a US$5 billion productivity drive.

Meanwhile, BHP (AU:BHP) was up 1.78% no news, whereas Glencore (LN:GLEN) had closed slightly lower in London on Friday but Teck Resources (NY:TECK) had finished 1.4% up in New York.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed lower after briefly breaching the 6,000-point mark again in early trade, echoing slightly lower closes by major indices including the FTSE100 and S&P500 on Friday.

Looking ahead, Australia's Reserve Bank is widely expected to leave interest rates unchanged when it meets tomorrow, and Bloomberg said the consensus forecast pointed to a 5% year-on-year rise in Chinese exports in dollar terms to be announced later this week.

The US has been engrossed in the latest developments in the investigation into Russia's involvement in the 2016 election, while the senate passed tax cuts legislation which helped push the gold price down to US$1,273.70 an ounce on the spot market earlier today.