Canadian processor pH7 Technologies is expanding its Vancouver facility, backed by up to C$4 million from NRC IRAP, to scale its organo-electrochemical platform that recovers platinum, palladium and rhodium from secondary materials without toxic reagents or tailings wastewater. The commercial plant already processes spent catalytic converters, producing 30,000–40,000 oz of platinum-equivalent PGMs per year under a tolling and offtake model involving partners such as Mitsubishi. pH7 is now piloting electrochemically generated oxidants to heap leach chalcopyrite and other sulphide ores without cyanide, targeting on-site mine deployment within 1–2 years across South America, Africa and Australia.

Dellner Bubenzer is supplying a wide range of industrial brakes and couplings for mining hoists, slewing drives and belt conveyors, developed in long-term collaboration with OEMs. The company focuses on both service and emergency braking solutions tailored to heavy-duty mining duty cycles and harsh environments, addressing controlled hoisting, precise slewing and high-tension conveyor stopping. For engineers, the key point is an integrated approach to drivetrain and braking design, rather than bolt-on safety systems, across multiple critical mining applications.

China’s Zijin Mining is expanding RG Gold’s Raygorodok operation in Kazakhstan with a $500 million processing plant while deploying SKRI’s ‘phytocapture’ system, planting over 100,000 Scots pines across more than 20 hectares about 1.7 km downwind of the open pit. Supercomputer modelling using regional wind-rose data sets tree species and spacing to form multilayered vegetative barriers, not simple landscaping. SKRI reports particulate-matter reductions above 40%, with the forest belt expected to capture roughly one-third of dust emissions as mining advances towards the barrier.