Midana Exploration (Hancock Prospecting) and Saudi Arabian Mining Company (Ma'aden) have formally received five Round 9 exploration licences in the Nabita Ad-Duwayhi gold belt at the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh on 14 January 2026, cementing their Saudi joint venture. The licences cover greenfield gold targets in a known mineralised corridor, signalling a pipeline of drilling, resource definition and geometallurgical testwork in the Arabian Shield under Saudi Arabia’s new mining code.

Weba Chute Systems is being brought in by OEMs, EPCM contractors and mine operators to fix process flow bottlenecks arising when new or upgraded screens and crushers are integrated into existing circuits. The company applies custom-engineered transfer chutes, designed around site-specific ore characteristics and throughput, to stabilise material flow, reduce impact and spillage, and limit unplanned stoppages. For plant engineers, the trend signals growing recognition that chute geometry and lining design can be the critical constraint on circuit capacity rather than the primary crusher or screen.

Barrick Gold has chosen Metso’s high‑intensity Concorde Cell™ flotation technology for the Lumwana copper mine expansion in Zambia, to operate in tandem with previously specified TankCell® units. The Concorde Cell is designed for complex, finely disseminated orebodies and ultra‑fine particle recovery, while TankCell units provide conventional rougher and cleaner flotation capacity. The combined flowsheet signals a move towards staged, high‑grade flotation circuits at Lumwana, with implications for reagent regimes, residence time design and potential debottlenecking of downstream dewatering and concentrate handling.