Ark Mines has secured a Queensland mining lease for its Sandy Mitchell rare earths project, marking a key move from exploration to planned production. The licence positions the company to advance mine planning and approvals for heavy and light rare earth extraction in northern Queensland, a region already targeted for critical minerals development. Geotechnical and mine design teams can now progress detailed pit designs, waste storage layouts and haul road alignments under a defined tenure framework.

Final submissions are due within a week for the GRX26 global mining challenge, which is seeking innovators to tackle real-world operational problems for major producers including BHP, Rio Tinto and Newmont. Run through the AusIMM GRX (Global Resources Experience) platform, the challenge focuses on deployable solutions in areas such as orebody knowledge, tailings and waste, energy use and decarbonisation, and workforce technology. For engineers and tech developers, it offers direct access to operating sites, structured pilot pathways and feedback from senior technical leaders.

Fuel supply constraints are increasingly disrupting Australia’s mining and exploration sector, with the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) warning that junior miners in remote regions face diesel shortages and volatile pricing at outback depots. AMEC reports that smaller operators, often running single-rig exploration programmes and contract haulage fleets, have limited storage capacity and weaker bargaining power with bulk fuel suppliers. The situation is forcing schedule changes, higher operating costs per drilled metre or tonne moved, and greater logistics risk for greenfields projects far from pipeline or rail infrastructure.