H-Power plc has completed phase one of its Joint Development Agreement with Komatsu to assess an ammonia-fuelled engine platform and is moving into phase two to design and integrate its proprietary ammonia cracking technology into Komatsu machinery. The programme focuses on on-board conversion of ammonia to hydrogen-rich fuel gas, aiming to cut diesel use and CO₂ emissions in large mining equipment without major changes to existing engine architecture. For mine operators, this signals potential future options for low-carbon haul trucks and excavators where grid power or full battery electrification is impractical.

Resolution Copper has let about $110 million in contracts to Major Drilling America and Redpath USA to accelerate exploration drilling and underground development at its proposed deep copper mine in Arizona. The work forms a major early tranche of an approximately $500 million post-FEIS investment programme, signalling a shift from study to execution-phase activities. For geotechnical and mining teams, this points to imminent ramp-up in underground access, drilling density, and ground characterisation data ahead of any full-scale shaft sinking or block-cave development decisions.

Alice Queen has remobilised a diamond drill rig to the Horn Island gold project in the Torres Strait, its first drilling there in several years, to test a recently defined exploration target. The rig will support a multi‑phase programme aimed at expanding known mineralisation around existing Horn Island pit shells and conceptual targets, rather than greenfield step‑outs. For geotechs and mine planners, new core data from this historically under‑drilled island deposit will refine structural models, grade continuity assumptions and potential open‑pit or underground design envelopes.