Europe’s RESourceEU plan to stockpile critical raw materials risks filling warehouses with concentrates and scrap that EU industry cannot directly use, such as tungsten concentrate instead of ammonium paratungstate or magnet-grade rare earth alloys. Nicholas Vafeas argues that the Critical Raw Materials Act’s 2030 target for 40% EU processing capacity will be undermined if procurement is judged only on tonnes, price and delivery speed, favouring refined imports over domestic plants. He calls for stockpile design that underpins European and partner-country processing (e.g. Zambia, Namibia), integrates recycling flows, and uses EU purchasing power to lock in diversified, end-to-end processing routes rather than just raw material supply.

Frequent closures on the M5 motorway have been challenged in Parliament, with MPs pressing the Department for Transport and National Highways to justify disruption levels and adopt new traffic management measures. Calls centre on reviewing incident response protocols and planned works coordination to keep key junctions and long-distance freight corridors open for longer. For civil and traffic engineers, any policy shift could affect lane closure durations, night‑time possession strategies and design of future maintenance schemes on this strategic route.

Western Australia has opened public consultation on eight proposed amendments to the Mining Rehabilitation Fund Act 2012 following a 10‑year independent statutory review of the scheme. The discussion paper covers changes to how annual environmental disturbance is reported and levies are calculated for tenement holders contributing to the pooled MRF, which currently replaces traditional unconditional performance bonds for most sites. Geotechs and mine planners should expect potential shifts in closure liability estimation, disturbance mapping requirements and compliance reporting workflows if the amendments proceed.