Global EV battery capacity deployment passed 1 TWh in 2025, nearly quadruple 2021 levels, yet the raw material bill for lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt and manganese in passenger EVs reached only $15.6 billion, still about half the 2022 peak. BYD’s all‑LFP, lower‑end line-up and heavy plug‑in hybrid mix kept average battery metals spend to $247 per EV (US$366 per BEV), versus Tesla’s US$1,082 and Volkswagen’s US$1,624 per BEV, with VW now the largest battery metals spender. GM’s NCMA‑heavy Ultium strategy yields an average US$1,664 per EV and is being retooled towards LFP, while Toyota’s HEV‑dominated portfolio limits spend to US$185 per vehicle.

Weir has secured a contract to supply ENDURON® high pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) for the tertiary crushing circuit in Ivanhoe Mines’ Platreef Phase 2 concentrator expansion in South Africa. The HPGR circuit will be integrated as part of the Phase 2 flowsheet rather than relying solely on conventional cone crushing, targeting improved energy efficiency and finer product for downstream milling. For process engineers, the move signals continued adoption of HPGR technology on large-scale PGM–nickel concentrators to cut specific energy and potentially reduce overall comminution footprint.

Cohda Wireless and Spectrum FiftyNine are deploying compact V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) modules at Rio Tinto’s Oyu Tolgoi underground mine in Mongolia to deliver real-time proximity awareness between heavy vehicles and personnel. The system integrates Cohda’s V2X software stack with Spectrum FiftyNine’s low-profile hardware, Roobuck cap lamps and Maptek’s mine planning and visualisation tools to create a unified situational awareness layer. For geotechnical and operations teams, this enables tighter traffic management in constrained headings and declines without relying solely on line-of-sight or radio voice calls.