OreNova Engineering is deploying proprietary AI-based design tools to accelerate the definitive feasibility study for Horizon Gold’s Gum Creek project in Western Australia, targeting faster engineering of the mineral processing plant. The Perth-based firm is using automated process modelling and plant layout optimisation to compress design cycles that traditionally take months into weeks, while iterating multiple comminution and gold recovery flowsheets. For project engineers, this points to shorter DFS schedules, earlier capex definition and the ability to rapidly compare alternative plant configurations under varying throughput and ore characteristics.

Metso has signed its largest analyser Life Cycle Services (LCS) agreement to date, a five-year contract with a major South American copper producer covering performance-based support for on-stream analysers. The deal centres on an outcome-based model, with Metso responsible for maintaining analyser availability and measurement accuracy across the concentrator to stabilise grade control and process optimisation. For plant and maintenance engineers, it signals deeper OEM involvement in long-term condition monitoring, remote diagnostics and KPI-linked service for critical assay instrumentation.

Wabtec Corporation has secured a long-term services agreement worth more than $700 million with La Compagnie du TransGuinéen (CTG) to support a new fleet of Evolution Series locomotives on the Simandou iron ore rail corridor in Guinea. Combined with CTG’s 2024 locomotive orders, Wabtec’s total Simandou-related contract value now exceeds $1.2 billion, its largest services package in Africa. The deal signals long-horizon OEM support for heavy-haul rail operations that will underpin bulk ore export logistics from the greenfield Simandou development.