Total procurement spend with Indigenous-owned businesses has reached $5.83 billion, with mining and resources now the largest single driver of demand for Supply Nation–registered suppliers. The State of the Indigenous Business report points to major contracts in mine site services, civil works and haulage as key growth areas, with Tier 1 miners increasingly using mandated Indigenous participation targets in procurement panels. For engineers and project managers, this signals more joint ventures, Indigenous subcontracting on bulk earthworks and haul road construction, and tighter reporting on Indigenous spend.

Australian Power Equipment is designing mine-wide electrical ecosystems for underground electrification, supplying modular substations, flameproof switchgear and high-voltage distribution tailored to remote, hot and dusty headings. Co-directors Andrew Cockbain and Abby Crawford emphasise integration of variable-speed drives, soft starters and real-time protection relays to manage high inrush currents from battery-electric loaders and jumbo chargers. The approach focuses on IEC-compliant, arc-fault-contained enclosures and condition monitoring to cut unplanned outages and support staged transition from diesel to fully electric fleets.

A new report on Australia’s battery supply chain positions graphite as a strategic material for lithium‑ion anodes, noting that graphite makes up most of the active material in current EV battery chemistries. The analysis points to Australia’s existing natural graphite resources and emerging synthetic graphite projects as a way to reduce reliance on Chinese processing capacity, which currently dominates anode production. For miners and processors, the report signals growing scrutiny of flake size distribution, impurity control and downstream spherical graphite and coating capacity as key value drivers.