Chile's mines returned to service on Monday after the massive weekend earthquake briefly shut nearly a quarter of the top copper producer's output, while improving power supply eased concerns of further disruption.

As miners confirmed that operations were resuming, London copper prices tempered gains to end up nearly 3 percent after a knee-jerk jump of more than 5 percent when markets opened after Saturday's 8.8 magnitude quake, among the largest on record.

Despite heavy damage to Chile's infrastructure near the epicenter some 200 miles (322 km) south of Santiago, there was no serious damage reported to the copper mines around the capital that were shut by power outages, while the biggest deposits some 600 miles (1,000 km) to the north were unaffected.

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Posted by mopeng at March 1, 2010 12:53 PM