PDAC has named six recipients of the 2027 PDAC Awards, recognising achievements spanning early-stage discovery, major mine development and sustainability in Canadian and international projects. The awards cover categories such as mineral exploration, mine builders, sustainability and indigenous engagement, with winners typically selected for discoveries that add multi-million-ounce gold or multi-million-tonne base metal resources and for projects that reach commercial production on time and budget. For engineers and geoscientists, the list signals which exploration models, development strategies and community partnership approaches are currently being held up as best practice.

Putzmeister Underground Division has appointed Cannon Mining Latin America as its exclusive distributor for Mexico, covering shotcrete equipment, concrete transporters and other specialist underground mining solutions. The deal aims to expand parts and service coverage across key mining regions such as Sonora and Zacatecas through Cannon’s local workshops and field service teams. For mine operators, the partnership should shorten lead times for fleet support and commissioning of new underground concrete placement systems, reducing reliance on imports and remote technical support.

Epiroc’s fleet of Autonomous SmartROC D65 MKII blasthole drills is expanding across mining and quarrying, with units now running at Fortescue’s Solomon and Eliwana iron ore operations in Australia and at Luck Stone’s Rockville quarry in the United States. The rigs automate drilling cycles for production blastholes, delivering repeatable hole depth and spacing and reducing operator exposure at the bench. For engineers, the deployment signals growing acceptance of OEM autonomy for large-scale production drilling rather than limited trial use.