The S&P-ASX 300 Metals and Mining index closed the quarter at 4190.4 points, up 7.4% for the month.
The mining sector beat the S&P-ASX 200, which closed the month up 3.8% to 4582.9 at the end of trading today.
The Australian bourse was served with flat leads from overseas markets last night. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.21% to 10,835.28, and the FTSE 100 dropped 0.16% to 5569.27.
Most of the majors closed down, with the exception of Fortescue Metals Group, which rose A6c to $5.21 and Kingsgate Consolidated, which gained 6c to $11.60.
BHP Billiton dropped 46c to $38.91, Rio Tinto lost 49c to $76.77 and Newcrest Mining fell 33c to $39.67.
Sundance Resources was the best of the larger caps, up 1.5c to 25c. Bougainville Copper gained 3c to $1.33, though on thin trading, and Aquarius Platinum put on 11c to $5.63 after releasing its financial statements this afternoon.
St Barbara was the worst affected of the larger cap miners, down 2.5c to 39c after making an appearance in the net producer hedging report prepared by UK metals consultancy GFMS today.
Perseus Mining, also mentioned in the report as adding new hedging arrangements during the quarter, fell 14c to $2.90.
Sandfire Resources suffered from end of month profit taking, down 25c to $6.93, closing beneath $7 for the first time this week.
Robust Resources was the best of the mid-caps, up 20c to $1.93 on no particular news.
Tiger Resources also made gains, up 2.5c to 30.5c. The company has now gained 7c since September 27, a feat which earned the company a speeding ticket from the ASX today.
Metals X also travelled reasonably well, up 2c to 27.5c, and Allied Gold gained 2.5c to close the day at 49c.
Golden West Resources had another good day on the markets, up 4.5c to 95c.
Chalice Gold Mines saw the worst of it among the mid caps, down 5c to 64c, with Resource Generation down 4c to 64c and Sihayo Gold off 1c to 17.5c.
Ausamerican Mining was the best of the tiddlers. The company’s shares were double their previous value at the end of the day after the company announced it may have a “potentially large rare earth/specialist metal” discovery at its exploration tenements in Arizona.
Commodities were well up overnight, with three-month copper breaking through the $US8000 per tonne barrier on the London Metal Exchange overnight, closing up 1.42% to $8064/t.
Zinc also gained, up 0.23% to 2309.25/t and nickel put on 0.76% to $23,350/t.
