Latrobe Magnesium has produced its first sustainable magnesium oxide at a demonstration plant in Hazelwood North, Victoria, using proprietary technology to extract magnesium from Latrobe Valley brown coal fly ash. The process targets commercial production of both magnesium metal and supplementary cementitious material (SCM)-grade by-products, aiming to replace imported magnesia and reduce cement clinker content. For geotechnical and concrete practitioners, locally sourced MgO and SCM from waste ash could alter binder specifications, shrinkage control strategies, and durability mix designs in eastern Australia.

German materials firm FibreCoat has developed zinc-coated fibres for use in reinforced concrete, claiming cathodic corrosion protection for embedded steel in highly alkaline environments where aluminium rapidly degrades. Dispersed within concrete mixes for marine and coastal structures, the zinc fibres could, subject to testing, extend asset service life by 20–30 years at a fraction of the cost of titanium fibre reinforcement. Chief executive Robert Brüll positions the heavier, less reflective zinc coating as a structural, durability-focused alternative for multi-storey car parks, docks, ports and bridges.

Use of calcined clay concrete on the London Museum project, led by Sir Robert McAlpine with close input from engineers, contractors and materials suppliers, is enabling on-site deployment of a lower-clinker, lower-carbon mix rather than limiting it to precast elements. The team is adapting mix design and placing methods in real time on a live heritage-site build, addressing workability, setting time and strength-gain behaviour under typical UK site conditions. For practitioners, this signals growing confidence in calcined clay binders for mainstream structural applications where conventional CEM I would previously have been specified.