IMARC will return its Innovation & Investment Alley in 2026, with Editorial Director Richard Roberts saying the event will again assemble one of the sector’s strongest line-ups of mining technology leaders and early‑stage innovators. More than 500 solution providers are expected in Melbourne, giving mine operators, contractors and investors concentrated access to digital mining platforms, automation vendors and equipment OEMs in a single venue. For engineers, the alley offers a dense snapshot of deployable technologies and pilot‑ready concepts that could feed directly into 2027–2030 project pipelines.

Metso has secured multiple process technology packages for the New Simberi Gold Project Expansion in Papua New Guinea, supplying grinding, flotation, thickening and filtration equipment. The project is owned by Simberi Gold Company Limited, a 50:50 joint venture between Lingbao Gold Group and St Barbara Limited, with engineering delivery led by Pitch Black Group. The deal signals further standardisation of Metso’s integrated comminution–flotation–tailings dewatering flowsheets on brownfield gold expansions in the Asia–Pacific region.

Brightstar Resources has reported a 225.7m intercept grading 3.11g/t gold from 284m depth in hole TMHRCD26006A at the Two Mile Hill–Shillington deposit, including a high-grade core of 19m at 24.3g/t, at its Sandstone project in Western Australia. The broad, unconstrained mineralisation from infill drilling materially strengthens the potential for a bulk underground mining scenario rather than a narrow-vein approach. Geotechnical and mine design teams will now be able to model a large, continuous orebody at depths beyond 280m, with implications for stope geometry, ground support and ventilation planning.