Also, the market is expecting October to show another slowdown in Chinese growth this week, Marex Spectron noted at the close of the London Metal Exchange yesterday.

Nickel closed near a year-to-date low of US$11,755 a tonne as the rest of the base metals complex finished lower, and the iron ore price also softened.

Vale SA (BZ: VALE3) was off 4.5% yesterday, losing Monday's gains made in the wake of the presidential election win in Brazil by Jair Bolsonaro, who is seen as mining friendly.

Meanwhile the euro dropped as European political heavyweight, German chancellor Angela Merkel, said she would step down in 2021.

The gold price is about US$6 an ounce lower than this time yesterday on the spot market, below $1,227/oz.

Gold major Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM) closed up more than 2.5% yesterday, while in afternoon Australian trade, gold miners took three of the five spots showing the biggest declines on the benchmark S&P/ASX200.

Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN) was more than 3.3% lower at the time of writing.