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North American markets were closed for public holidays on Monday and China is continuing its Lunar New Year celebrations.
Rare earths producer Lynas Corp (AU:LYC) was one of the bigger gainers on Australia's S&P/ASX200 index, rising about 4% on no news.
Among the smaller stocks, Australian Mines closed up almost 32% on signing a 7-year offtake agreement with electric vehicle battery manufacturer SK Innovation, for 100% of its cobalt and nickel production from its Sconi project in Queensland.
BHP (AU:BHP) lost almost 1% ahead of its release of half-yearly results just after market close, although it remains within about A$1 of its 12-month high reached in mid-January.
In London, Rio Tinto (LN:RIO) lost just over 1% yesterday, as did Glencore (LN:GLEN).
Gold was worth just over US$1,341 an ounce on the spot market earlier while copper fell almost 1.6% on the London Metal Exchange yesterday but remains above $7,076 per tonne.
