Artificial intelligence models from Toronto-based Stratum AI are now underpinning the publicly reported JORC mineral resource estimate for St Barbara’s operating Simberi gold mine in Papua New Guinea, in what is claimed as one of the first such applications globally. Developed jointly with Perth-based St Barbara, the models were used directly in resource estimation rather than as a parallel or shadow study. For geologists and resource modellers, this signals growing regulator and owner confidence in AI-derived domaining and grade interpolation workflows within formal reporting frameworks.

AngloGold Ashanti’s Obuasi gold mine in Ghana will commission a fourth Gekko InLine Leach Reactor (ILR) in 2027, expanding a circuit that already runs three ILRs alongside a BIOX® refractory ore treatment plant. The decision extends more than two decades of site experience with ILR technology, originally adopted at Obuasi in its early commercial rollout. Additional ILR capacity should increase gravity gold recovery from concentrates, reduce lock-up in the BIOX® circuit and give metallurgists more flexibility in treating variable high-sulphide ore.

Evolution Mining’s Cowal Gold Operations in New South Wales has improved ramp-up and throughput in its large-scale gold processing plant using Molycop’s MillROC support on a conventional comminution circuit. The plant runs primary crushing followed by SAG and ball mills treating a blended open pit and underground ore feed ahead of flotation and leaching. For process engineers, the key change is tighter control of SAG–ball mill performance, directly affecting grind size, downstream recovery stability and overall plant throughput.