Brightstar Resources has released a 22 per cent increase in mineral resource estimate for its Menzies gold project, sharpening plans to develop the site as a standalone mining hub in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. The updated resource focuses on near-surface, open-pittable ounces across key deposits such as Yunndaga and Lady Shenton, supporting a potential central processing facility rather than trucking ore to Brightstar’s Laverton plant. For mine planners and geotechs, the shift towards shallow oxide and transitional material points to conventional drill‑and‑blast with relatively straightforward pit geotechnical design.

Final designs have been approved for the Isaac Resources Excellence Precinct in Moranbah, a $47 million hub to support coal, critical minerals and METS innovation in Queensland’s Bowen Basin. The precinct, led by the Resource Centre of Excellence and Isaac Regional Council, will include a 3000m² innovation centre, underground mining simulation facilities and training workshops targeting automation, decarbonisation and mine rehabilitation technologies. For engineers and METS suppliers, the project signals new testbed capacity close to large open-cut and underground coal operations.

Westgold Resources has restarted mining at the historic Great Fingall gold mine near Cue in Western Australia, firing the first production blast after more than a decade on care and maintenance. The operation targets high-grade underground ore beneath the old Great Fingall open pit, using modern longhole stoping and paste fill to extract remnant pillars and deeper lodes. Geotechnical teams will need to reconcile historic workings, old shaft infrastructure and voids with contemporary ground support, seismic monitoring and water management standards in WA’s Murchison region.