Eldorado Gold has completed permanent energisation of the Skouries gold-copper project in northern Greece, connecting the site to the Greek national power grid after final inspection, testing and approval by the transmission authority. The grid tie-in replaces temporary power and enables commissioning of major process plant systems, underground infrastructure and dewatering equipment ahead of ramp-up. Reliable high-voltage supply is critical for Skouries’ planned large-scale concentrator and will influence mine scheduling, ventilation design and long-term operating costs.

Caterpillar is extending its Command for hauling autonomous haulage system into quarry-scale operations with a new deployment at Dolese Bros’ Richards Spur quarry in Oklahoma, following its earlier rollout on Cat 777 trucks at Carmeuse’s Drummond Island quarry in Michigan supported by Fabick Cat. The Richards Spur project applies AHS to a high-production limestone operation using rigid-frame haul trucks on short, repetitive quarry cycles rather than traditional large open-pit layouts. For geotechnical and quarry planners, this signals OEM confidence that AHS can handle tighter haul roads, variable bench conditions and more constrained traffic patterns typical of aggregates sites.

Above-ground risks have imposed or frozen more than $54 billion in Latin American mining since 2018, including a $31.7‑billion settlement for the 2015 Mariana tailings dam failure in Brazil and roughly $7 billion in stalled Peruvian copper projects plus $4 billion tied up in Mexico’s El Arco, San Nicolás and Cordero developments. AMI also cites Panama’s $6.8‑billion Cobre Panamá copper mine closure and over 700 days of transport-corridor blockades at Peru’s Las Bambas as emblematic of execution and social risk. Consultants report investors now heavily discount projects with uncertain permitting timelines, weak institutional legitimacy or high exposure to illegal mining.