Weichai-controlled LOVOL Heavy Industry has delivered its first FR2000F hydraulic mining excavator, a 212 t class machine, to an open-pit mine customer in China. The FR2000F is powered by a Weichai 12M33 low-speed, high-torque, fully electronically controlled engine with quad-turbocharging and an advanced modular design, aimed at high-load, continuous mining duty. The 200 t class size positions it for pairing with ultra-class haul trucks, potentially altering fleet configurations and loading cycle times on large benches.

PLS has commissioned Australia’s first mine-site lithium mid-stream processing facility at its Pilgangoora Operation in Western Australia, with Premier Roger Cook officiating the opening, marking a shift from exporting raw spodumene concentrate towards higher-value battery materials. The Mid-Stream Demonstration Plant is integrated directly with the existing open-pit and concentrator complex, enabling on-site conversion steps that are normally performed at distant chemical refineries. For mine planners and process engineers, this signals growing interest in co-locating beneficiation and mid-stream refining to cut logistics, reduce intermediate handling and tighten quality control.

Aureka has defined multiple new high-priority gold exploration targets at its 100 per cent-owned Irvine project in Victoria’s Stawell Corridor after completing an airborne magnetic geophysical survey. The higher-resolution magnetic dataset sharpens imaging of subsurface structures, enabling more precise interpretation of the structural architecture that controls mineralisation along strike from the Stawell and Magdala gold systems. This will guide follow-up drilling and ground geophysics, concentrating spend on structurally focused targets rather than broad, reconnaissance-style drilling.