The MINEXCHANGE 2026 SME Annual Conference & Expo in Salt Lake City will close next week with SME’s Signature Awards Event recognising more than 70 recipients across mining, metallurgy and exploration. Honours span technical excellence, health and safety, environmental stewardship and professional service, reinforcing SME’s role in setting practice benchmarks for US and international operations. For engineers and operators, the awards list often signals emerging leaders, influential research directions and projects likely to shape upcoming guidance and conference content.

ESCO’s ESCO division has launched the Nexsys Ripper System for Cat D11 dozers, targeting high-load ripping in mining, aggregate and heavy construction applications. The system uses premium alloy steels and a redesigned shank–tooth interface to improve penetration and wear life under highly abrasive conditions typical of large open pits and quarries. Faster tooth changes and reduced unplanned change-outs are aimed at increasing dozer utilisation on primary ripping benches and hard overburden, with direct implications for drill-and-blast requirements and fleet productivity.

Atlas Salt has expanded its strategic relationship with Sandvik Mining as part of an updated feasibility study for the Great Atlantic underground salt project near St George’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, building on a comprehensive non‑binding MOU signed in September 2024. The enlarged scope is expected to cover Sandvik’s input on underground mobile equipment fleets and automation-ready mining systems for large-scale room-and-pillar extraction. For engineers, the move signals early vendor integration into mine design, equipment selection and life-of-mine operating cost assumptions ahead of project sanctioning.