Ontario and Canada have signed a “one project, one review” agreement to coordinate federal and provincial environmental and impact assessments, targeting long-delayed mining and infrastructure schemes in the Ring of Fire and other critical mineral districts. The deal dovetails with Ontario’s One Project, One Process (1P1P) framework, which aims to cut mine approval timelines from up to 15 years to a maximum of two years, with Frontier Lithium’s PAK project the first pilot. For geotechnical and mining teams, the move signals materially shorter permitting horizons for cobalt, lithium, nickel and copper projects backed by a C$500 million processing fund.

The Planning and Infrastructure Act has received Royal Assent, bringing into force a wide package of reforms aimed at accelerating housing delivery and major infrastructure consenting across the UK. Measures include streamlining Development Consent Order processes for nationally significant projects and tightening statutory timescales for planning decisions, with the intention of reducing multi‑year delays on large transport, energy and water schemes. For engineers, the changes signal pressure to front‑load design, environmental assessment and geotechnical risk work to meet shorter pre‑construction and examination windows.

Brazil has indefinitely postponed a planned March 2026 auction of mineral exploration areas rich in critical minerals after the National Mining Agency (ANM) said it lacks funds to cover embedded auction costs. The tender was to be the first mining round run jointly with B3, the São Paulo stock exchange operator, using a bidding model already applied in power and oil and gas, and would have addressed a backlog of roughly 100,000 areas awaiting auction. The delay jars with Brazil’s push to market its 94% share of global niobium reserves and significant graphite, nickel, lithium and rare earth potential.