Mining Profits...Investing In Industrial Metals

Copper prices made modest gains Friday despite the conclusion of a miners' strike in Chile, as traders squared positions ahead of the three-day Labor Day weekend.

A decline in prices earlier in the day was blamed largely on profit-taking, traders said.

December copper settled up 0.50 cent to settle at $3.4610 per pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Settlement of the 25-day strike at Chile's Escondida, the world's largest copper mine, had little effect on closing prices.

Escondida workers received a 40-month contract offer that included a 5 percent wage increase, an end-of-conflict bonus, an interest-free loan, as well as additional benefits including education, housing and health care.

Gold and silver futures finished slightly mixed after early weakness. Some of the bounce was linked to a reluctance to be short ahead of a three-day Labor Day weekend, due to some of the ongoing tensions in the Middle East. But some was also linked to the recovery in the euro against the dollar, after early euro weakness was blamed for gold's and silver's initial declines.

December gold settled $1.60 lower to $632.60 a troy ounce, up from a low of $628.

December silver managed to finish up 4 cents to $13.07 after an earlier low of $12.825.

October platinum rose $3.60 to $1,254.80 an ounce.

December palladium gained 90 cents to $349.60.