Western Gold Resources has approved a formal decision to mine at its 100%-owned Gold Duke Project in Western Australia, moving from pure exploration to near-term production. The project already holds mining approvals over the Eagle, Emu, Golden Monarch and Gold King deposits, allowing WGR to advance directly into detailed mine planning and contractor engagement rather than waiting on permitting. For geotechnical and mine planning teams, the pre-approved multi-deposit layout signals a likely staged open-pit schedule and shared infrastructure strategy across the four pits.

PYBAR Mining Services has mobilised to Larvotto Resources’ 100%-owned Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales, with underground development now underway. The contractor is preparing access and development drives to reopen historic workings at Hillgrove, a high-grade antimony-gold system previously mined via narrow-vein underground methods. Early development performance, ground conditions and water management in these initial headings will strongly influence the mine’s restart schedule, stope design and the sequencing of future drilling and production levels.

Copper prices set fresh records above $12,000/t in London and $5.60/lb in Chicago in 2025, amid outages at Grasberg, El Teniente, Kamoa-Kakula, Quebrada Blanca II and Cobre Panamá, and mounting geopolitical friction over US tariffs and Chinese processing dominance (53.1% of global capacity). Analysts are split, with Goldman Sachs seeing a 160 kt surplus capping 2026 prices at $10,000–$11,000/t, while Bank of America and BloombergNEF project spikes to $15,000/t and a 19 Mt structural deficit by 2050. Technically significant stories include Freeport’s 400 kt sulfide leach push at Morenci, the stalled deep-shaft Resolution Copper project in Arizona, and the proposed $53 billion Anglo–Teck merger that could create a copper complex larger than Escondida’s 1.28 Mt/y output.