BEIJING, April 24 (Reuters) - Aluminium prices continued to
retrace recent gains on Tuesday after Washington gave U.S.
customers of United Company Rusal more time to comply
with sanctions on the Russian producer. 
    The sanctions, announced on April 6, last week drove prices
for the metal to their highest since mid-2011 on fears that the
global market could face shortages.
    But the U.S. Treasury Department on Monday gave Americans
until Oct. 23, instead of June 5, to wind down business with
Rusal and said it would consider lifting the sanctions if
Rusal's major shareholder, Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska, ceded
control of the company.
    "The deadline extension will allow for a deal to be crafted
for Rusal and allow for an orderly transition in the market,"
consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in a note late on Monday.
    "We expect near-term correction and volatility in LME
prices" and global premiums, it added. The U.S aluminium premium
on Comex was at 21.5 cents per pound ($474 a tonne) on
Monday, its highest in over three years.
        
    FUNDAMENTALS
    * LME ALUMINIUM: Three-month aluminium on the London Metal
Exchange was down 1.3 percent at $2,266 a tonne by 0344
GMT. It fell by as much as 3.1 percent earlier in the session to
$2,223, its lowest since April 12, and slid by 7 percent on
Monday in its biggest one-day drop in eight years.
    * SHFE ALUMINIUM: The most-traded June aluminium contract on
the Shanghai Futures Exchange was down 2.8 percent at
14,515 yuan ($2,299) a tonne by the mid-session interval. 
    * INSIGHT: In December, as news reports emerged about
potential new U.S. sanctions against Russia, aluminium magnate
Deripaska instructed advisers to draw up contingency plans,
according to people close to the businessman and his firms.

    * NICKEL: The Philippines is planning to limit the amount of
land that miners can develop at any one time to boost
environmental rehabilitation, a move that miners say may cut
output of nickel ore in last year's top supplier to China.

    * CHILE: Chilean industrial conglomerate Empresas Copec
SA said on Monday it had reached an agreement with
Peru's Minsur S.A. to buy a 40-percent stake in a
holding company that owns a Peruvian copper mine project for
$168.5 million.