* LME, Shanghai copper drift 0.1 pct lower, others also ease * Currencies in focus; BOJ yen sales, yuan appreciation * Coming Up: Philly Fed Sept business activity; 1400 GMT By Nick Trevethan SINGAPORE, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Copper ticked 0.1 percent lower in London and Shanghai on Thursday, with markets cautious after the Bank of Japan sold 2 trillion yen in the previous session, sending the dollar leaping from 15-year lows. The yen remained under pressure on Thursday as traders stayed on the alert for possible further intervention by Japanese authorities after their massive yen-selling campaign the previous day. [ID:nTOE68E0AD] Also on the currency front, but potentially more supportive, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sharpened his criticism of China's exchange rate policies, saying the yuan was strengthening too slowly and that he will look for new ways to get Beijing to move faster. The yuan CNY=CFXS has risen 1.25 percent against the dollar since Beijing announced in June that it was ending a currency peg. [ID:nN15135709] "The big story is currency -- yen and yuan. The yen intervention -- will it work? Will it last? Normally these things don't last long," a metals trader in Hong Kong said. "With these currency risks, interest in metals has died off," he said, adding that a series of Chinese holiday in the next few weeks had added to investor trepidation. "There are Chinese holidays for three days next week and a longer break soon after that. Volumes are already slowing and we won't see much until LME week mid October, unless we see something in the currencies or a bit of shock data." Three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange CMCU3 fell $10 to $7,610 a tonne by 0351 GMT. Benchmark third-month Shanghai copper SCFc3 lost 0.1 percent or 40 yuan to 59,050 yuan. The dollar traded at 85.25 yen JPY=, down slightly from late U.S. levels but still not far from Wednesday's high of 85.78 yen on electronic trading platform EBS JPY=EBS, and more than two yen above its 15-year low of 82.87 yen struck just before Tokyo stepped into the market on Wednesday. Markets will be looking to several pieces of influential U.S. data later in the day -- initial claims, the Philly Fed business activity and producer price inflation. [COM/WEEK] U.S. industrial output slowed in August and a measure of New York state business conditions slipped to the lowest level in more than a year, according to data on Wednesday, suggesting the economy was cooling but not stalling. [ID:nN15145257] "This isn't telling us anything we didn't know. We need something to shake the market out of its slumber. But trillions of yen dumped in the forex market hardly stirred metals, so you have to wonder what it will take," a trader in Singapore said. Falling stocks and expectations of steady Chinese demand were likely to support prices near the upper end of their recent $6,000-$8,000 range, the Singapore trader said, but there was little on the radar to force a break out. In industry news Chile's half a million tonne-per-year Collahuasi copper mine said it will begin negotiations next week on a new collective contract, hoping to avoid the stoppages that affected its output in May. Last month, workers dismissed Collahuasi's offer of early negotiations, but union leader Manuel Munoz told Reuters on Wednesday that he was optimistic about a prompt accord. The contract expires Oct. 30. [ID:nN03164516] Workers at Chilean state mining giant Codelco's Radomiro Tomic mine on Thursday rejected an early wage proposal, a union leader said, leaving a potential cloud over supply stability at the world's top copper producer. [ID:nN16222389] Aluminium CMAL3 fell 0.4 percent to $2,146, down 3.7 percent this year, while Shanghai metal SAFc3 dipped 0.2 percent from Wednesday's close, but is down 9 percent this year. Technically, LME aluminium's upside is limited to $2,184 and it may develop a downward trend by the end of the week. [TECH/C-MET] Base metals prices at 0351 GMT Metal Last Change Pct Move End 2009 YTD pct chg LME Cu 7610.00 -10.00 -0.13 7375.00 3.19 SHFE Cu* 59050.00 -40.00 -0.07 59900.00 -1.42 LME Alum 2146.50 -7.50 -0.35 2230.00 -3.74 SHFE Alum* 15605.00 -30.00 -0.19 17160.00 -9.06 COMEX Cu** 345.80 -0.15 -0.04 332.75 3.92 LME Zinc 2144.50 -0.50 -0.02 2560.00 -16.23 SHFE Zinc 17640.00 85.00 +0.48 21195.00 -16.77 LME Nickel 23100.00 -100.00 -0.43 18525.00 24.70 LME Lead 2225.00 -10.00 -0.45 2432.00 -8.51 LME Tin 23070.00 -80.00 -0.35 16950.00 36.11 LME/Shanghai arb^ 904 Dollar/yuan 6.7336 \ 6.7344 ** 1st contract month for COMEX copper * 3rd contact month for SHFE aluminium, copper and zinc ^ LME 3-m copper in yuan, including 17 pct VAT, minus SHFE third month (Editing by Michael Urquhart)

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