The miners were filling the FTSE 100 leaderboard at mid-morning, as a bullish note from Bank of America Merrill Lynch gave the sector a push.
Xstrata was up 72p tp £14.41, Antofagasta rose 65p to £14.70, and Kazakhmys gained 61p to £15.55 among other mining gains.
The analysts said the prices of base and precious metals were set to rise further on the back of more QE from the US and demand from China.
The note said:
Metals have appreciated strongly since the end of the recession and prices are in our view set to increase further next year. Nevertheless, against the generally bullish backdrop, we believe that the relative strength of fundamentals will manifest itself in price movements. Production problems should be one distinguishing factor and we expect undersupplies of copper, platinum and palladium to help these metals outperform. We like copper in particular and expect the metal to average $11,250/t ($5.10/lb) next year.
The FTSE 100 as a whole was trading slightly lower at midday - down just 4 points to 5,812.
BT was another major mover on the leaderboard - up 8p to 167p after its numbers today.
