• Shares of copper miners rise, tracking gains in prices of the red metal [MET/L]

• Benchmark copper on London Metal Exchange up 1.7% at $12,901 a metric ton, its highest since March 17

• Copper prices hit their highest in more than three weeks as investors weigh signs of improved demand in top metals consumer China against uncertainty over a fragile ceasefire in the Iran war

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

up 1.8% and BHP Group rise marginally

• Miners Southern Copper and Freeport-McMoRan

gain 2.6% and 2.1%, respectively

• Canada's Hudbay Minerals jumps 3%, Ero Copper

adds 1.7% and Teck Resources up 3.5%

(Reporting by Pooja Menon in Bengaluru)