US copper futures settled higher on Monday after a large earthquake reported in Chile's mineral-rich northern region gave the market a late boost in an otherwise sleepy trading session, analysts said. "After the news came out, copper spiked a little bit but nothing too dramatic," said Robbert Van Batenburg, head of research with Louis Capital Markets in New York.
Copper for March delivery ended up 2.55 cents to $3.2985 a lb on the New York Mercantile Exchange's COMEX division, after dealing between $3.2510 and $3.3250. A 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck northern Chile, near the city of Iquique, but production operations in the region were not affected. The Collahuasi copper mine, owned by Xstrata Copper and Anglo-American Plc, which produces 8.2 percent of Chile's copper, is located 100 miles (160 km) south-east of Iquique.
"There hasn't been any impact on Collahuasi or our operations in the Antofagasta region," Xstrata spokeswoman Emily Russell told Reuters. A spokeswoman for Chile's government-owned Codelco, the world's top copper miner, said that operations at its giant Chuquicamata mine were not affected.
The northern region of the country has had a long history of earthquakes. In November, a massive 7.7 magnitude quake hit near the village of Antofagasta, killing two people, damaging buildings and halting operations at some of the world's largest copper mines.