Waste gangue contamination at Yangcheng Coal Mine in Shandong, where raw coal ash content reached 42.08%, has severely reduced product quality, wasted hoisting capacity and created large surface stockpiles. Around 4 Mt of coal reserves also remain locked beneath surface buildings, constraining conventional extraction methods and mine planning. MeiTeng Technology’s involvement signals a shift towards higher-precision coal–gangue separation and more intensive underground recovery, with direct implications for processing circuit design, waste handling and long-term environmental liabilities.

A $400 million conditional loan from the US Department of War’s Office of Strategic Capital will help Sunrise Energy Metals build primary scandium mining at Syerston in New South Wales, plus metallisation and additive layer manufacturing capacity, targeting a 60‑tonne‑per‑year output in a market producing only about 80 tonnes globally in 2025. The package, part of a nearly $1 billion public‑private financing, gives the Department right of first offer on output to feed US defence and commercial users. For materials engineers, a reliable primary scandium stream could de‑risk alloy qualification and scale‑up for high‑strength aluminium and SOFC applications.

Glomar Minerals has sent its UK Seabed Resources vessel RV Tangaroa on a 67‑day campaign to the Clarion‑Clipperton Zone, surveying two UK‑sponsored licence areas totalling about 133,000 sq. km for polymetallic nodules rich in manganese, cobalt, nickel, copper and rare earths. CEO Chris Williams is targeting first processing of nodules before the end of Donald Trump’s current term via Project Infinity, a modular US refinery with Cobalt Blue designed for 200,000 tonnes of nodules and 7,500 tonnes of terrestrial cobalt hydroxide per year. The company is actively exploring regulatory pathways outside the ISA and positioning for staged scale‑up from a sub‑full‑vessel operation.