Eldorado Gold has produced first copper concentrate from its 100%-owned McIlvenna Bay project in east-central Saskatchewan, following completion of wet commissioning at the site’s processing plant. Acquired recently to bolster Eldorado’s Canadian operating platform, McIlvenna Bay transitions from construction to early operations with the concentrator now running under load. The move adds a base metals stream to Eldorado’s predominantly gold portfolio, signalling imminent ramp-up decisions on mine development, underground scheduling and long-term mill throughput planning.

Sandvik is investing in a new logistics hub at its Turku, Finland, factory for underground load and haul equipment, relocating key warehousing and materials-handling operations directly adjacent to production lines. The hub will replace parts of the current off-site logistics flow to cut internal transport distances and support shorter factory lead times for loaders and trucks such as the LH and TH series. For mine operators, the move signals a push for faster parts availability and more predictable delivery schedules for new fleets and rebuilds.

Epiroc has signed a global agreement with Ericsson to distribute LTE and 5G private network technology through Epiroc customer centres for both underground and surface mines. The deal packages Ericsson’s industrial-grade radio, core network and edge solutions with Epiroc’s digital and automation portfolio, targeting applications such as real-time fleet monitoring, remote drilling and autonomous haulage. For engineers, the move signals wider availability of carrier-grade wireless backbones to replace or supplement leaky-feeder, Wi-Fi and wired networks in harsh mining environments.