Stillwater Critical Minerals is advancing its Stillwater West project in Montana with new rhodium assays from eight holes in a 3,472-metre 2025 drill campaign at Chrome Mountain and Iron Mountain feeding an updated resource estimate due next month. The current 2023 inferred resource stands at 255 million tonnes at 0.2% nickel-equivalent cut-off, containing 1.64 billion lb nickel-copper-cobalt, 3.81 million oz palladium-platinum-rhodium-gold, 115,000 oz rhodium and 2.3 billion lb chromium in a Platreef-style, bulk-tonnage setting. Backed by Glencore’s 15% stake and more than 40,000 metres of drilling support, the company is funded for its largest drill programme yet and planning a first PEA later this year.

Fortescue has installed its first production-series Fortescue Zero battery-electric power system into a Liebherr T 264, a 240 t class haul truck, at Liebherr’s mining equipment proving grounds near Newport News, Virginia. The integration of the full battery system into the diesel-designed T 264 chassis marks a key step towards OEM-agnostic retrofits of large mining trucks, enabling mine operators to trial high-capacity battery haulage on existing fleets. Engineers will now focus on duty-cycle validation, thermal management and charging interface performance under proving-ground conditions.

CRCHI’s first mining tunnel boring machine has begun underground cutting at NFCA’s Chambishi copper mine in Zambia’s Copperbelt, with initial rotation of the cutterhead starting on 13 May. Developed in Changsha, Hunan, by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corporation, the TBM marks the debut of a China-designed unit specifically for mining applications rather than civil tunnelling. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, successful performance at Chambishi could open wider use of TBMs for long ore drives and access tunnels in hard-rock African operations.