** Shares of copper miners fall, tracking lower prices of the red metal

** Benchmark copper CMCU3 on the London Metal Exchange down 0.7% at $11,401 a metric ton

** Copper prices dip as traders said the panic over tight supplies that caused a price spike this week had started to ease MET/

** Global mining giant Rio Tinto RIO.N down 1.7%

** Southern Copper SCCO.N down marginally and Freeport-McMoRan < FCX.N> falls 1.2%

** Canada's Hudbay Minerals HBM.TO down 1.3% and Ero Copper ERO.TO fall 1%

(Reporting by Dharna Bafna in Bengaluru)

((Dharna.bafna@thomsonreuters.com))