S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) mining shares made plenty of headlines this week.
Here's what drew The Motley Fool's attention to these three big mining stocks over the week gone by.
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ASX 200 mining shares in the news
Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX: FMG), BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) all grabbed our headlines on Wednesday following a bullish forecast for copper and iron ore prices from Citi.
The broker upped its three-month forecast for the iron ore price to US$140 per tonne while its analysts expect the copper price to reach US$8,600 per tonne. That forecast is largely based on expectations of increased stimulus measures out of China boosting the nation's struggling steel and copper-hungry property sector.
And with iron ore counting as the top revenue earner for all three ASX 200 mining shares (with copper coming in at number two), investors took note.
According to Citi:
We now expect in our base cases that China will likely increasingly push towards fiscal expansion to engineer investment-led growth, and this time with a focus on urban village redevelopment/affordable housing to support overall property market related activity in 2024.
The rebounding iron ore price has already offered some heady tailwinds for the big miners. Over the past month, the BHP share price is up 8.3%, the Rio Tinto share price has gained 12%, and the Fortescue share price is up 17.7%.
Rio Tinto shares made headline news separately on Wednesday when the ASX 200 mining share reported it had reached a settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). That settlement relates to a 2017 case involving "disclosure of the impairment of Rio Tinto Coal Mozambique reflected in Rio Tinto's 2012 year-end accounts".
Rio Tinto did not admit to any fault in its book keeping or reporting requirements. But the miner agreed to pay a US$28 million penalty to put the case to rest.
And Fortescue grabbed our headlines on Tuesday when the ASX 200 mining share traded at fresh 52-week highs on the heels of announcing some major green project expansion plans.
Fortescue revealed plans to invest US$750 million in two green hydrogen projects and one green metals project over the next three years.
