Queensland-based mining services provider National Group is sponsoring a community-focused award recognising resources companies that show strong engagement and deliver measurable change across the sector. The award targets operators and contractors working in Queensland’s coal, metals and quarrying projects, with assessment centred on local employment, training programmes and long-term community investment rather than short-term donations. For geotechnical and mining teams, this signals growing scrutiny of how project delivery, contractor selection and site rehabilitation strategies translate into tangible regional benefits.

Smarter filtration solutions in wet mineral processing are focusing on high-pressure tower filter presses for slurry dewatering, such as Thejo’s vertical plate designs that deliver low-moisture filter cakes and high filtrate recovery. Suppliers are pairing these presses with automated cloth washing, cake discharge monitoring and optimised cycle control to stabilise throughput and reduce unplanned downtime. For plant designers, the shift is towards integrating filtration with upstream thickening and downstream dry stacking to cut fresh water intake and tailings storage volumes.

War with Iran has pushed antimony’s defence role into focus, yet Canada still has no antimony-specific strategy despite classifying the metal as critical and committing more than C$3.6 billion to broad critical minerals funds. Canagold’s New Polaris in British Columbia, with 5,173 tonnes of contained antimony and testwork producing a 59.1% Sb concentrate at 93.1% recovery, is Canada’s most advanced project but receives no antimony revenue in its feasibility and has been denied federal funding. Earlier-stage efforts such as Antimony Resources’ Bald Hill (10,000 metres drilled, three rigs turning) and Critical One Energy’s 30 km-long Howells Lake belt face the added hurdle of no North American processing route for future concentrate.