Caterpillar is extending its MineStar Command for hauling system with Luck Stone from the Bull Run Quarry to two additional Virginia sites and, for the first time, onto Cat 775 haul trucks. At Bull Run, a fleet of autonomous rigid trucks has already moved more than 3.5 million tons since November 2024, following an 18‑month ramp‑up. The deployment on mid‑size 775s signals AHS moving from large open‑pit fleets into smaller quarry-scale operations, with implications for traffic management, loading unit integration and mixed‑fleet haul road design.

Hercules Metals is advancing the Hook target in western Idaho toward direct drilling after reconnaissance hole HER-26-03 clipped a 1.8 km chargeability anomaly with a 500 m high-strength core modelled from ~100 m depth, indicating a shallow porphyry system in Triassic volcanic and carbonate-bearing rocks. The hole, collared 400 m west due to road constraints, cut strong quartz-sericite-pyrite and skarn alteration with 5–10% pyrite but did not test the anomaly’s core, so assays are expected to guide vectoring rather than deliver grades. Hook lies 3 km east of the Leviathan porphyry, which SCP models at >600 Mt grading ~0.5% Cu (~3 Mt contained), and is now Hercules’ strongest untested near-surface chargeability target pending road and drill pad permits.

Green Manganese Technologies has completed initial metallurgical test work showing its proprietary hydrometallurgical circuit can recover manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper from polymetallic nodules in a single integrated process, avoiding Submerged Arc Furnaces, electrolysis, and multi-phase converting. The flowsheet selectively dissolves manganese minerals to release associated critical metals into one solution while converting iron to hematite, creating an additional value stream for iron, titanium, and rare earth elements. Reported recoveries exceed 90% for all four principal metals with energy consumption up to five times lower than conventional pyrometallurgical routes, positioning the process for pilot-scale nodule projects.