Antofagasta, the FTSE 100 copper miner, said that production from October to December had risen 7 per cent quarter on quarter to meet full-year forecasts.
Shares in Victoria Oil & Gas, the AIM-listed company, rose after an independent audit of its Russian project in west Siberia found that it had 1.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent, more than previous estimates.
Royal Dutch Shell has made two new oil and gas discoveries in its Badr El-Din concession in Egypt’s Western Desert.