Founders Factory and Rio Tinto have backed six new mining-technology startups through their accelerator, selected from more than 500 applications received in four months as demand for raw materials intensifies across exploration, processing and critical mineral recovery. The cohort targets digital and hardware solutions spanning orebody discovery, plant optimisation and recovery of low-grade or complex ores, signalling strong investor appetite for deployable tools rather than pure R&D. For mine operators, this points to a near-term pipeline of pilots and site trials, particularly around data-driven processing control and improved critical mineral extraction.

Gold Fields will pilot a prototype Sandvik 66‑tonne diesel‑electric underground haul truck at its St Ives gold operation in Western Australia, as outlined in its Sustainability Report 2025. The trial, to be conducted with mining contractor Byrnecut as “business partner”, will test high‑capacity diesel‑electric haulage in existing St Ives stopes and declines. Outcomes will inform fleet decarbonisation strategy, power demand planning and potential changes to ventilation design for future underground expansions.

Epiroc has introduced a 480 kW underground charging system designed for heavy‑duty battery‑electric fleets, combining ruggedised hardware with OEM‑agnostic interfaces so mixed‑brand loaders and trucks can use the same infrastructure. The system uses dynamic power distribution to allocate available capacity across multiple connected vehicles, reducing peak demand and improving utilisation of limited mine power. For mine planners and electrical engineers, this points to higher charger throughput per substation bay and simpler standardisation of charging bays in constrained headings.