Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation yesterday said it would "vigorously" defend any legal action over the ownership of assets it recently bought in the DRC.

London-listed First Quantum Minerals has pulled nearly all its expat worers out of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after the government seized its Frontier copper mine.

Upbeat economic data from China and India have helped to support stock markets and the price of copper, and calmed fears of a global "double dip" recession.

Singing the national anthem in a full-throated chorus, 33 miners trapped deep underground thanked their rescuers and settled in for a long wait until a tunnel wide enough to pull them out can be carved through half a mile of solid rock.

The UK's largest pawnbroker posted a 71 per cent surge in half-year profits to £14.5m yesterday after volumes at its "Gold Bars" shopping-centre sites more than tripled.

Engineers reinforced a lifeline today to 33 miners entombed deep inside a Chilean gold and copper mine, preparing to keep them supplied with food, water, medicine and communications during the four months it may take to carve a tunnel wide enough to pull them out.

Geely Auto has withdrawn its £14m offer to buy a controlling stake in Manganese Bronze, the maker of London's black cabs.

Xstrata is planning to invest more than $5bn (£3bn) in new projects as its focus shifts from acquisitions to organic growth.

Imagine it: a room full of suits in London's austere and business-like Institute of Civil Engineers, engaged in a passionate debate about religion. That was the scene on Wednesday at the annual general meeting of the London-based and LSE-listed mining company Vedanta, which has been trying for years to get permission to mine bauxite on Nyamgiri, a mountain in the east Indian state of Orissa.

Emed Mining, the owner of the 5,000-year-old Riotinto copper mine in south-west Spain, is considering a move to the main board of the London Stock Exchange.

For the second day in row, it was the miners who set the pace on the FTSE 100 leaderboard yesterday, with copper producers in particular vogue with traders.