Marex Spectron's Alastair Munro from the LME desk said copper for three-month delivery had rallied intraday to US$9,965 per tonne, "a stone's throw" from the 2011 all-time high of $10,190/t.

Gold was worth about $1,775 an ounce on the spot market at the time of writing.

Among the market movers in Toronto, Galleon Gold (TSXV: GGO) gained 22.7% to C13.5c on reporting a near-surface 6m intercept grading 9.37g/t gold at its West Cache project in Ontario.

Banyan Gold (TSXV: BYN) rose 1c or 4.76% on news of 54.6m at 0.88g/t gold from one of the first three 2021 diamond drill holes at its AurMac property in the Yukon.

However, yet more high grades from Osisko Mining's Windfall project in Quebec failed to excite, with shares (TSX: OSK) easing 1.25% after the company reported more highlights including 2m at 296g/t gold.

And Skeena Resources (TSX: SKE) closed down 3.52% on results including 5.6m at 45.76g/t gold from its Snip project in British Columbia.

Finally among the majors, Rio Tinto lost about 1% in London, Newmont fell 1.6% in New York and BHP was 0.9% softer in morning Australian trade.