** Shares of copper miners up, tracking prices of the red metal

** Benchmark three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange $(LME.UK)$ up 0.1% at $8,776.50 a metric ton, as of 1640 GMT (11:40 a.m. ET), having touched $8,757 a metric ton on Tuesday, its lowest price since Aug. 8

** Copper prices hover near five-month lows as expectations of deteriorating demand were reinforced by weak manufacturing activity around the world

** U.S. dollar firms , resuming a climb that has weighed on metal prices since the end of September; a stronger U.S. currency makes dollar-priced metals more expensive for buyers holding other currencies

** U.S.-listed shares of global mining giants Rio Tinto

and BHP Group are both up marginally

** Copper miners Southern Copper and Freeport-McMoRan up 1.9% and 1%, respectively

** Canadian miners Ero Copper rises 2.9%, First Quantum Minerals up 2.8% and Hudbay Minerals rises 4.8%

** HBM also receives air quality permit for the Copper World project from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru)

((Pooja.Menon@thomsonreuters.com;))