SuperCritical Materials has appointed Neal Froneman, founder and former CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater, as chair of its board, bringing more than 30 years’ experience and a track record that includes leading Sibanye’s move into lithium via a stake in Finland’s Keliber project. Froneman, already an investor in SuperCritical, says he was attracted by its focus on fuel‑production infrastructure for nuclear. The company is scaling advanced seawater uranium extraction to expand nuclear fuel supply for new reactors and power‑hungry AI data centres, signalling future demand for large marine and processing facilities.

CRH reported second-quarter revenues of $10.8bn, up 6%, with adjusted EBITDA rising 7% to $2.6bn, driven by 10% revenue growth in its Americas Materials Solutions business and 5% growth in Europe from infrastructure and reindustrialisation demand. The group agreed an $8.5bn acquisition of Arcosa to strengthen its aggregates and critical infrastructure footprint in North America, while completing three non-core divestitures. For contractors and materials suppliers, this signals sustained demand for asphalt, aggregates and concrete, particularly in US and European infrastructure pipelines.

Carbon capture is being deployed at cement plants to tackle process emissions that account for much of cement’s contribution to roughly 8% of global CO₂ output, targeting the calcination step where limestone is converted to clinker. Projects are trialling post‑combustion capture on kiln exhausts, oxy‑fuel combustion to produce CO₂‑rich flue gas, and integration with storage or utilisation routes such as mineralisation in aggregates. For designers and contractors, this enables lower‑embodied‑carbon concrete without major changes to mix design, but raises questions on plant energy demand, capture rates and long‑term storage liability.