Aeris Resources has more than quadrupled the ore reserve at its Tritton copper operations in central New South Wales to 10 Mt at 1.7 per cent Cu and 0.38 g/t Au, securing over five years of mill feed for the existing processing plant. The enlarged reserve base underpins Aeris’ strategy for a long-life, multi-mine hub, giving planners clearer visibility on stope sequencing, backfill requirements and ventilation upgrades across multiple underground orebodies. For contractors and suppliers, the five-year runway signals sustained demand for ground support, pastefill, and mine services in the Tritton district.

AIC Mines has appointed Clint Donkin, Glencore’s former head of copper for its Africa region and ex-chief technology officer for copper, as managing director and CEO of its North Queensland copper operations from 31 October. Donkin’s background includes overseeing multiple African copper assets and joint ventures within Glencore’s portfolio, giving him deep experience in large-scale sulphide operations, brownfield expansions and complex processing flowsheets. The move signals AIC’s intent to leverage tier-one copper operational and technology expertise as it advances production and potential growth projects in the region.

Geology-led geometallurgical modelling is being used to predict ore behaviour beyond grade by integrating limited metallurgical testwork with geological domains to estimate recovery, hardness, deleterious elements and mineralogical variability at block-model scale. Tools such as Datamine’s Studio RM and Maptek’s Vulcan are combining drillhole assays, mineralogy and comminution indices (e.g. Bond ball mill work index) to generate 3D models of processing performance rather than just metal grade. For mine planners and process engineers, this enables earlier circuit design decisions, more realistic throughput forecasts and domain-specific blending strategies.