Mining experts are convinced that the global supply deficit could further push copper prices higher until the year 2013 to the benefit of mining companies world-wide, mining experts attending the CRU World Copper conference in Sanitago, Chile said today.

The world copper market could see a supply deficit of not less than 400,000 to half a million tonnes this year and the shortage may extend beyond 2013, analysts in Sydney, Singapore and Hong Kong said today.

The trend, which they say could be within two years before a supply and demand balance could be achieved in 2013, could further make copper futures lucrative for suppliers.

In the Shanghai futures, copper price jumped 1.3 percent when the market re-opened after a two-day holiday during which Beijing tightened monetary policy once more with a 25-point hike in key benchmark rates.

Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange rose $US90.75 to $US9,480.75 a tonne by 1547 AEST. Copper futures contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rose 1.3 per cent to 71,360 yuan.

In a related Reuters report, Rio Tinto's copper unit chief executive, Andrew Harding, said he sees a wider deficit than the market consensus of around 400,000 tonnes.

"I see a deficit ... It wouldn't be difficult to imagine something around the half a million tonne mark," Mr Harding told Reuters on the sidelines of the CRU world copper conference.

"I can image it being a one or two-year phase and potentially longer."

Latest data showed copper stocks in warehouses rose 4,425 tonnes to 442,325 tonnes, their highest since early July 2010.

On Monday, 6,000 tonnes entered South Korea, extending a recent rise in copper stocks in Asia.