Greenland Mines has closed its US$35 million acquisition of the Sarfartoq rare earth project from Neo Performance Materials, securing a carbonatite-hosted NdPr deposit near Kangerlussuaq, about 60 km from Greenland’s main international airport. An independent Initial Assessment on the ST1 deposit alone, which occupies under 1% of the 191 km² licence, reports a pre-tax NPV of ~US$2.05 billion and IRR of 118.6%, based on Indicated and Inferred resources and a nine-year mine plan. The company plans immediate infill drilling, pilot-scale metallurgical test work, mine engineering and expanded environmental and social baseline studies to advance to pre-feasibility.

Maritana Minerals has completed over 17,000m of reverse-circulation drilling in 119 holes at the Boorara gold project near Kalgoorlie, progressing it as the first planned ore source for the Black Swan processing hub ahead of a targeted mid-2027 restart. The campaign focuses on resource conversion and was run in parallel with grade-control drilling to tighten pre-production mine planning. For geotechnical and mine design teams, the dense drilling grid should materially refine orebody geometry, grade continuity and pit optimisation for the initial restart phase.

Western Australia will invest more than $900,000 in five 2027 Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA) PhD scholarships targeting safer, more efficient and lower-emission mining across the state. The funded projects will focus on critical operational challenges in WA’s resources sector, including improved mine safety systems and productivity in high-tonnage operations. For engineers, the programme signals future research capacity in areas such as low‑carbon extraction methods, advanced geotechnical characterisation and process optimisation tailored to WA orebodies.