Sentiment was buoyed by renewed hopes of US fiscal stimulus, and improvements in industrial companies' profits in China, ahead of the country's Golden Week holiday which begins on October 1.
There was keen interest in lithium stocks following Tesla's news it planned to build a lithium hydroxide chemical plant in Texas; and Piedmont Lithium confirmed a spodumene sales agreement with the EV manufacturer.
Piedmont (ASX: PLL) closed up 83.3% in Australia, hitting a one-year high of A28.5c intraday.
Its Nasdaq-quoted ADRs rose 236.4%.
Lithium Americas (TSX: LAC), which is advancing the Cauchari-Olaroz brine JV in Argentina and the Thacker Pass lithium deposit in Nevada, closed up 23.4%.
US lithium producer Livent (NYSE: LTHM) gained 6.85%.
The gold price, which fell below US$1,900 an ounce last week, was worth about $1,879/oz at the time of writing.
In London, Glencore and Rio Tinto both lost more than 1% yesterday.
Newmont rose 1.14% in New York and Freeport-McMoRan closed up 3.85%.