JCHX, the Chinese global mining contractor, has signed a five-year global strategic cooperation agreement with mining equipment major Epiroc at JCHX’s Beijing headquarters on 16 June. The deal is expected to centre on Epiroc’s underground drilling, loading and haulage fleets and digital automation platforms being deployed across JCHX’s international contract mining projects. For engineers, the agreement signals closer standardisation of OEM equipment, spares and data systems across JCHX-operated mines, which could simplify fleet maintenance strategies and interoperability planning.

Rising commodity prices are pushing lower‑grade material back into mine plans, forcing operators to rely on tighter, more defensible assay data as projects run closer to economic cut‑off grades. With narrower margins for analytical uncertainty, small shifts in laboratory results now materially affect resource models, reserve classification and pit optimisation. This raises the stakes on lab QA/QC, sample preparation protocols and inter‑lab variability, directly influencing project viability decisions across exploration and feasibility studies.

UK Mining Conference delegates in Cornwall set out how domestic resources such as Cornish lithium, Scottish barite and Welsh copper could reduce UK reliance on imported critical minerals amid volatile markets and geopolitical risk. Speakers linked subsurface datasets from the British Geological Survey with AI-driven targeting for deep exploration, and discussed permitting, ESG scrutiny and grid constraints as key barriers to new mines and processing plants. Panels also focused on skills, using school outreach, virtual reality mine tours and apprenticeships to attract young people into geoscience and mining engineering.