The Association for Mineral Exploration is urging British Columbia Premier David Eby to appeal the Gitxaala Nation v. British Columbia decision, after the province’s Court of Appeal ruled on 5 December that the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act incorporates UNDRIP and creates legally enforceable obligations. AME argues the ruling creates uncertainty for the province’s automatic online mineral claim system and the Mineral Tenure Act, despite the March 2025 Mineral Claims Consultation Framework (MCCF) changes. The group wants the legislature recalled to make “substantive” amendments to DRIPA and section 8.1 of the Interpretation Act before a 16 February 2026 appeal deadline.

Korean researchers led by Seungho Lee at Jeonbuk National University map five distinct lithium governance models in Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia and Mexico, linking them to commodity price cycles, geopolitical competition and the maturity of each country’s lithium industry. Chile’s hybrid regime with strong state oversight contrasts with Argentina and Brazil’s decentralised, market-led systems, Bolivia’s tightly controlled state-led model and Mexico’s largely rhetorical nationalisation stance. The two-stage decision-making framework signals that miners, battery manufacturers and state-backed investors must tailor project, offtake and JV strategies to country-specific political settlements rather than apply a single Latin America playbook.

Engineers have again ranked as the UK’s second most trusted profession in the 2025 Ipsos Veracity Index, with a large majority of respondents saying they believe engineers tell the truth. The result places engineers just behind nurses and ahead of doctors, teachers and scientists in perceived honesty. For infrastructure and construction teams, this public confidence strengthens the mandate for engineers to lead on risk communication, safety decisions and major project trade-offs in areas such as flood defences, transport schemes and energy infrastructure.