LONDON- Aluminium prices advanced on Thursday on worries about supply of the energy-intensive metal after Russia's Gazprom halted gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria.

Other base metals slumped in low volumes, however, due to uncertainty about how rising inflation and lockdowns in China would hit global growth and as the Chinese yuan weakened.

Benchmark three-month aluminium on the London Metal Exchange (LME) was up 0.9% to $3,120 a tonne at 1015 GMT, building on a 1% gain from the previous session.

"Increasing tension over the energy sector will continue to offer long-term support to aluminium. The fundamentals are solid," said Gianclaudio Torlizzi, partner at consultancy T-Commodity in Milan.

The termination of gas supplies to two European countries fuelled fears more states could be hit, especially Germany.

Aluminium, which needs huge amounts of power in the smelting process, has seen curtailments of operations due to surging energy prices.

Extended lockdowns in top metals consumer China to battle COVID-19, however, has fanned worries about overall metals demand as the country's yuan currency slipped to nearly 17-month lows against the U.S. dollar on Thursday.

"A weakening yuan is bearish for base metals and there's expectation that the yuan can weaken a bit more, so that will continue to pressure base metals," Torlizzi added.

* The dollar index was at its strongest since January 2017, making dollar-denominated metals more expensive for buyers using other currencies.

* The global economy will expand more slowly than predicted three months ago, according to Reuters polls of more than 500 economists.

* Peruvian police on Wednesday said they had evicted an indigenous community that set up a camp inside a huge open pit at the Las Bambas copper mine, forcing operations to be halted.

* LME copper was little changed at $9,859 a tonne, but lead fell 0.1% to $2,280, zinc slipped 0.1% to $4,216.50, nickel shed 0.6% to $33,100 and tin lost 0.2% to $39,915.

(Reporting by Eric Onstad Editing by Mark Potter)