Updates prices

By Polina Devitt

LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Copper prices were steady on Tuesday, supported by an incident at a major mine in Indonesia and under pressure from a stronger dollar after a key revision to U.S. payrolls numbers.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 was unchanged at $9,913.50 per metric ton by 1604 GMT.

The dollar index rose 0.3% as investors braced for the U.S. inflation data due on Thursday after the payrolls numbers were revised down, suggesting a far weaker labor market than initial numbers showed in the 12-month period through March 2025. FRX/

A stronger U.S. currency makes dollar-priced metals less attractive for buyers using other currencies.

Copper, used in power and construction, is up 13% so far this year after hitting a five-month high of $10,038 last week.

"Demand for copper is still pretty strong because China is doing quite well as was shown by Monday's export-import data. It is the rest of the world that is causing a concern," said Dan Smith at Commodity Market Analytics.

Freeport-McMoRan FCX.N said it had temporarily halted mining in Indonesia's Grasberg, one of the world's largest copper mines, after a large flow of wet material blocked access to parts of the underground mine, restricting evacuation routes for seven workers.

Miner Anglo American AAL.L and Canada's Teck Resources TECKb.TO are to merge, the two companies said on Tuesday, in what would be the biggest mining sector M&A deal in over a decade. The two companies operate adjacent copper mines in Chile.

Meanwhile, LME aluminium CMAL3 rose 0.2% to $2,623 a ton with daily LME data showing that available aluminium inventories MALSTX-TOTAL in the LME-registered warehouses fell to 375,025 tons, their two-month low, after 67,400 tons of fresh cancellations in Malaysia. 0#MALSTX-LOC

LME zinc CMZN3 fell 0.6% to $2,858.5, lead CMPB3 lost 0.7% to $1,977, tin CMSN3 slid 0.4% to $34,025, while nickel CMNI3 dipped 0.7% to $15,120.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt; Editing by Sonia Cheema, Shailesh Kuber, Alexandra Hudson)

((polina.devitt@thomsonreuters.com; Reuters Messaging: polina.devitt.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

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