Ora Banda Mining has expanded gold mineralisation at its Little Gem prospect in Western Australia and identified a new zone near the Round Dam deposit, located about 3.5km from the 1.2Mtpa Davyhurst processing plant. The proximity to existing crushing, grinding and CIL infrastructure at Davyhurst materially improves the potential for near-term trucking and low-capex development of Little Gem ore. For mine planners and geotechs, the emerging satellite orebody offers optionality for short-haul open-pit designs tied into the current Davyhurst production schedule.

Liebherr-Australia has commissioned eight new machines for Northern Star Resources across the Kalgoorlie Super Pit and another Western Australian operation, adding to an existing fleet of five Liebherr units on site. The deployment includes PR 776 mining dozers working on the Super Pit’s ultra-large open-cut benches, where high wall stability, floor control and push efficiency are critical for maintaining ore feed to the Fimiston processing plant. For geotechnical and mine planners, the expanded dozer fleet signals higher capacity for cutback development, dump shaping and haul road maintenance under tight production schedules.

Liontown Resources has doubled revenue in the December half-year as the Kathleen Valley lithium project transitions to fully underground mining, with the first stopes now in steady production. The Western Australian operation is ramping up spodumene concentrate output from its initial nameplate capacity while bedding in underground haulage and ventilation systems designed for high-grade ore zones at depth. Management is guiding to a stronger second half as underground tonnages displace remaining open-pit feed, with unit costs expected to fall as development metres convert to ore.