Cemex and Berlin-based startup sensmore are digitising operations at the 770-year-old Rüdersdorf limestone quarry in Germany using AI-based loading and haulage optimisation. On-board edge devices and radar sensors on wheel loaders and haul trucks feed real-time data into sensmore’s optimisation engine, which recommends bucket fill levels, truck–loader pairing and haul speeds. Early results show reduced idle times and more consistent crusher feed, signalling practical pathways to retrofit AI-driven dispatch and loading control into existing European quarry fleets without full autonomy.

Multotec has supplied a customised suite of high-performance spiral concentrators to the Thaba JV chromite and PGM project in South Africa’s Limpopo province, providing an integrated gravity separation circuit tailored to the ore’s specific mineralogy. The solution is engineered to boost chromite and PGM recovery while tightening product grade control, with spiral configurations selected to allow rapid reconfiguration between different feed conditions and product specs. For plant designers and metallurgists, the key point is the emphasis on modular, flexible spiral layouts to sustain long-term performance as ore characteristics change.

Antofagasta plans to lift copper output by 30% by 2030, Executive Chairman and CEO Iván Arriagada told delegates at the World Mining Congress 2026, positioning the Chilean producer to meet surging critical minerals demand from the energy transition. The growth will come from brownfield expansions across its existing operations rather than new greenfield projects, implying higher stripping ratios, additional concentrator capacity and incremental tailings and water management upgrades. For engineers, the strategy signals sustained demand for large-scale pit optimisation, process debottlenecking and infrastructure life-extension work in northern Chile.