BHP share price hit a record high of $46.38 before cooling to $46.04, a 54c increase. The Big Australian has seen its share price increase $13.60 (42%) from $32.44 in mid-August.
Meantime, rival miner Rio reached an all-time high of $113.34 before closing up $2.01 at $112.12.
The mining majors and the resource sector in general helped push the benchmark S&P-ASX 200 index to a fresh closing high today of 6771.9, up 33.6 points, after losing ground early following weak offshore leads.
The index also set a lifetime high of 6782.5 in today’s session, its fourth consecutive intra-day record peak. The index has gained 23.5% from its 2007 low in mid-August.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 fell, in part due to lacklustre corporate results from several major United States companies which raised concerns over the outlook for profits.
On the base metals front, nickel trading three-month on the London Metals Exchange gained $US795 to $31,495 per tonne, while copper added $120 to $8,180/t despite news that the strike at Southern Copper’s operations in Peru had ended.
Nickel miner Sally Malay’s shares hit an intra-day high of $A5.25 after the company announced it had increased reserves at its Lanfranchi nickel project by 210% to 61,300t and measured and indicated resources by 85% to 98,700t.
Total resources at the project now exceed 125,000t, while the growing production profile extends the mine life beyond 2012, the company said.
Sally Malay closed the day at $5.27, up 36c.
Lead continues its upward path with analysts at UBS saying an LME three-month lead rally to $US4,000/t “can only be a matter of time”. The metal, which has risen from $1665/t at the start of the year, closed overnight at $3,890/t.
Spot gold gained $2.75 to reach $740.75 an ounce overnight after trading as high as $745/oz with stronger crude prices providing support.
Meanwhile, Midwest Corporation has advised shareholders to take no action over an all-scrip bid worth up to $A987 million from rival iron ore play Murchison Metals until it has fully assessed the offer.
Midwest said it was appointing advisers to help the company evaluate the offer.
Murchison yesterday made an unconditional offer of one share for every 1.16 Midwest shares, or one for 1.08 shares if Murchison is satisfied tax liabilities from the 50% sale of the Weld Range project to SinoSteel will be less than $20 million.
Midwest closed the day 42c higher at $4.90, while Murchison gained 31c to close at $5.49.
