BHP is seeking to restart the Cerro Colorado copper mine in Chile with a $1.5 billion plan centred on a new environmental permit and a 20‑year mine life. The proposal replaces contested groundwater use with leaching technologies supplied by treated wastewater pumped over more than 100 km from Alto Hospicio via a dedicated pipeline across the Atacama Desert. For engineers, the key issues will be permitting risk, long-distance water pipeline design in hyper‑arid terrain, and integration of seawater-desalination and wastewater streams into heap leach circuits.

Volvo Autonomous Solutions has signed a Letter of Intent with Jokkmokk Iron Mines AB to develop an autonomous haulage fleet for the planned Kallak/Gállok iron ore project north of the Arctic Circle, targeting operation in sub-zero, snow and ice conditions. The partners will test downsized, purpose-built autonomous vehicles rather than conventional 220–300 t trucks, aiming to optimise haul profiles, ramp geometry and energy use for a relatively compact open pit. For engineers, the project offers an early Arctic testbed for integrating autonomy with mine design, traffic management and winter road maintenance strategies.

Newcore Gold’s 80,000-metre diamond drill programme at the Nyam deposit, part of the Enchi project in Ghana, has returned above-reserve grades below existing pit shells, including 3.51 g/t gold over 21 metres from 245 metres (with 5.91 g/t over 9 metres) and 1.40 g/t over 21 metres from 317 metres. The project currently carries probable reserves of 51.3 million tonnes at 0.64 g/t (1.05 million oz.) within an indicated resource of 83.6 million tonnes at 0.56 g/t (1.5 million oz.). A new PFS, based on open-pit milling and CIL, outlines nine years at 104,000 oz./year (NPV US$496 million, IRR 37%), with analysts SCP and Haywood seeing scope for 130,000–140,000 oz./year if deeper high-grade ounces are drilled into the mine plan.