Lincom Group is opening a new branch at St Leonards near Launceston, with an open day on Friday 14 August showcasing equipment including the Powerscreen CT80 tracked conveyor. The Tasmanian facility expands local support for quarrying, recycling, forestry and materials processing operations, reducing freight times for wear parts and mobile plant service across the north of the state. For site and plant engineers, closer access to spares and field technicians should cut downtime on crushers, screens and conveyors during peak production.

Monash University has launched its Critical Minerals Initiative (MCMI), pooling more than 40 researchers from its Business and Economics, Science, Engineering and Arts faculties to address Australia’s limited critical minerals processing capacity. The programme targets midstream processing and value-add rather than just extraction, responding to rapidly rising demand for battery and magnet materials such as lithium, rare earths and nickel. For miners and processors, the move signals more R&D support for flowsheet development, processing technology and policy settings aimed at onshore refining.

Fine coal recovery is driving uptake of advanced flotation cells such as Eriez StackCell® units, which use high-shear contacting and a compact, staged design to recover and upgrade ultrafine coal that conventional mechanical cells and column flotation often lose to tailings. By targeting particles typically below 100 microns and improving combustible recovery from existing slurry streams, these systems can lift plant yield and revenue without new mining, while cutting waste volumes and associated tailings storage demands.