MEGAMINES ranks Saudi Arabia’s Wa’ad Al Shamal phosphate complex as the world’s costliest mining project, with total industrial-city investment of $22.7 billion and Ma’aden’s mine-and-refining CAPEX estimated at $15.5 billion, including an $8 billion original plant and a $7.7 billion Phosphate 3 expansion due by 2027. Guinea’s Simandou iron ore development follows with more than $20 billion in shared mine–rail–port spend, a 600 km trans-Guinean railway to a new deepwater port, and targeted output of 120 Mtpa of ~66% Fe ore by 2028. Brazil’s Serra Sul (S11D) at $19.5 billion plus a $2.8 billion brownfield expansion to 120 Mtpa, and Adani’s Carmichael coal project, originally scoped at 60 Mtpa with A$16.5–A$22 billion CAPEX but now operating at 10 Mtpa with a 200 km rail link, illustrate the scale, long timelines and redesign risk inherent in bulk mining megaprojects.

Trilogy Metals and South32’s 50/50 Ambler Metals JV has approved a $35 million 2026 work programme at Alaska’s Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects, targeting mine-permit submissions for the high-grade Arctic copper deposit under federal FAST-41. Drilling will focus on geotechnical and condemnation holes for mine design and infrastructure siting, while the Bornite camp is upgraded for multi-year geotechnical and exploration campaigns and an independent UKMP management team is re-established. Arctic’s 2023 feasibility study outlines a 13-year operation producing 149 Mlb/y copper plus zinc, lead, gold and silver, with an after-tax NPV8 of $1.1 billion and 22.8% IRR.

Almonty Industries has begun commercial mining at the Sangdong tungsten mine in Yeongwol, Gangwon Province, with the first truckload of ore delivered to the run-of-mine (ROM) pad, signalling the shift from development to active extraction. The project is centred on redeveloping one of the world’s historically significant tungsten deposits, aiming to supply high-grade ore into Asian and global hardmetal and alloy markets. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, the move commits the site to full-scale stoping, ground support, and backfill sequencing rather than purely development headings.