Komatsu South Africa has become the first surface Trackless Mobile Machinery OEM to secure Technology Readiness Level 4 (TRL4) certification, following independent verification by the University of Pretoria at the Gerotek Test Facilities in West Pretoria and on a live mining customer site. The TRL4 process validates collision prevention and related control systems under controlled and operational conditions, as required by South Africa’s TMM safety regulations. For mine operators, this signals that Komatsu’s surface fleets now meet a formally tested baseline for Level 9 collision avoidance integration and compliance planning.

LGMG’s new MTH150M rigid truck targets China’s fast‑growing methanol haulage fleet, offering a lower‑cost alternative to diesel with longer range than current battery‑electric options. Built on a 150 t‑class platform derived from its diesel MHT150 series, the truck integrates a high‑pressure methanol fuel system and engine package certified to China VI‑equivalent off‑road standards. For mine operators, the key trade‑offs are reduced CO₂ and NOx emissions without relying on high‑capacity charging infrastructure, but with added complexity in methanol storage, handling and on‑site fuel logistics.

Legislative constraints are preventing a Cambridge housing development from commissioning a greywater reuse system installed five years ago, Cambridge Water has confirmed. The scheme, designed to recycle treated wastewater from homes for non-potable uses such as toilet flushing and irrigation, remains idle despite full physical installation. The impasse signals ongoing regulatory misalignment between building-level reuse technologies and current UK water quality and adoption rules, delaying potential reductions in potable demand and wastewater discharge for new high-density schemes.

Sizewell C has appointed recruitment provider Rullion to run its early careers programme as the Suffolk nuclear project ramps up workforce planning for construction and commissioning. The partnership targets a long pipeline of apprentices, graduates and trainees across civil, mechanical, electrical and nuclear disciplines to support delivery of the twin EPR units and associated marine and civils works. For contractors and consultants, the move signals upcoming demand for site-ready junior engineers, technicians and project controllers familiar with nuclear-licensed site requirements and large-scale concrete and earthworks operations.

England’s 2026 hot, dry summer has pushed water companies to revisit large-scale seawater desalination, with schemes such as Thames Water’s previously shelved 150Ml/d Beckton plant back on the table. Developers face high capex, energy demand above 3kWh/m³ for reverse osmosis, and planning resistance over coastal intake/outfall structures and brine disposal. For civil and process engineers, the key constraints are grid connection capacity, integration with existing trunk mains and service reservoirs, and siting plants to avoid flood risk while remaining close to tidal water sources.

£28M in UK Government grants is being offered through a new competition for long-duration energy storage able to deliver electricity for at least 100 hours, targeting technologies beyond conventional lithium-ion. Funding is aimed at grid-scale systems that can support multi-day balancing of intermittent wind and solar, with an emphasis on demonstrators that can integrate into existing transmission and distribution infrastructure. Civil and geotechnical engineers should expect increased demand for sites, foundations, fire engineering and environmental permitting for large-footprint battery and alternative storage installations.

TechFest 2026 has named 185 finalists across 21 categories, recognising digital and technology-led advances in construction and civil engineering. Shortlisted entries span applications such as BIM-driven design workflows, sensor-based asset monitoring and AI-supported project controls on major infrastructure schemes. For practitioners, the awards signal where clients and contractors are currently investing in tools to manage programme risk, optimise whole-life performance and integrate data across design, construction and operations.

Rail services between Haywards Heath and Lewes will restart on Tuesday 1 September after Network Rail completed emergency repairs following last week’s passenger train derailment. The works are understood to have included track replacement and realignment on the affected section, plus inspections of ballast condition and signalling equipment to restore line speed and operational safety. Engineers will be alert to any residual geometry or subgrade issues, with early monitoring runs likely to check track behaviour under normal passenger loading.

Network Rail has launched an Expression of Interest for a £77.6M multi-year framework to deliver geotechnical and civil engineering works across its Wales and Western regions, covering earthworks, structures and associated lineside assets. The framework is expected to package embankment and cutting stabilisation, retaining walls, culverts and bridge repairs into regional workbanks, with contractors providing design-and-build capability under railway possession and access constraints. Bidders will need proven experience in rail-adjacent geotechnics, temporary works and working under live traffic with tight blockade windows.

Great British Energy – Nuclear (GBE-N) has set out an early works package for its new nuclear programme with an estimated contract value of £730M to £1.1bn, signalling a major pre-construction phase before main civil works. The scope is expected to cover site preparation, bulk earthworks, temporary works, utilities diversions and enabling infrastructure to de-risk later nuclear island construction. Contractors should anticipate complex ground engineering, stringent nuclear-grade quality control and long-lead procurement, with frameworks likely favouring teams experienced in large-scale UK nuclear and heavy industrial sites.

HS2 has agreed to introduce additional mitigation at a North Warwickshire construction site after residents complained of a foul odour from excavated material, worsened by recent high temperatures. Measures are expected to focus on improved stockpile management, faster removal of spoil and enhanced odour control around earthworks and temporary storage areas. Contractors on linear infrastructure schemes with large cut-and-fill operations may need to review spoil handling, covering strategies and monitoring during heatwaves to avoid similar community impacts.

Metals Exploration has secured $27 million in five-year equipment financing from Banco de America Central as its La India gold project in Nicaragua targets first production in December 2026, with $20.2 million already drawn to replenish cash spent on a Caterpillar mining fleet. Structural, mechanical, piping and electrical works are about 50% complete, including 93% of bulk earthworks, 92% of civil foundations, 60% of the tailings storage facility and 244,000 tonnes of ore stockpiled on the ROM pad. A 2‑MW grid connection to ENATREL is energised, but Iran-related shipping disruption is delaying some equipment, making logistics and remaining infrastructure the critical schedule risks.

Gold’s jump to about US$4,600 per oz., after the US Treasury doubled buybacks of longer-dated Treasuries on 19 August and pushed spot prices up more than 3% in a day, is being linked by the World Gold Council to growing pressure on a US debt pile that has just hit US$40 trillion. Senior quantitative analyst Johan Palmberg argues that persistent deficits, reduced buying by foreign central banks and capital rules constraining banks are forcing more duration risk onto hedge funds and other price‑sensitive investors. If this dynamic nudges policymakers towards yield‑curve control rather than pure quantitative easing, weaker real yields, a softer US dollar and perceived financial repression could all support structurally higher bullion allocations.

Bunker Hill Mining is acquiring Silver47 Exploration in an all‑stock deal valued at about $163 million, offering 0.1724 Bunker Hill shares per Silver47 share, a 38% premium to Silver47’s last close, to form a larger US‑focused silver and critical minerals producer. The combined Bunker Hill Silver will pair the restarted Bunker Hill mine in Idaho’s Silver Valley with Silver47’s exploration portfolio in Alaska, Nevada and New Mexico, with ownership split 57% Bunker Hill and 43% Silver47. Bunker Hill has also secured roughly $11 million in near‑term funding, including a $10‑million concentrate prepayment facility with Ocean Partners UK and a $1‑million draw from Teck Resources.

Silver surged about 20% in August to touch $70/oz on 21 August, driven by the US Treasury’s move to double long-bond buybacks, pushing prices above several banks’ 2026 baseline forecasts but still below the most bullish $110–$160/oz year-end and Q4 targets. Equity leverage has been stark: Hecla Mining gained 47%, Wheaton Precious Metals 44%, and Coeur, First Majestic and Fortuna each 42%, while the Global X Silver Miners ETF rose 35% and junior-focused SILJ 32%. Forecasts now span roughly $67–$118/oz for peaks, with tail-risk scenarios from Bank of America and BMO stretching above $135/oz if the gold–silver ratio compresses.

Mining executives now rank labour, not capital, as the main constraint, with a 2024 MiHR survey showing 70% of 15–30-year-olds would not consider mining careers and Canadian mining-related enrolments falling from 1,400 in 2014 to 800 in 2020, declining 10% annually from 2016–2020. Rob McEwen, chairman of McEwen Inc., warns of an “acute shortage” as over half of the US mining workforce is expected to retire within three years and 46% of Gen-Z mining and energy workers plan to quit, even as demand for critical minerals and battery metals accelerates project pipelines.

European utilities increased Russian nuclear fuel use in 2025, with uranium deliveries up 7%, conversion up 9% and enrichment sales up 12%, leaving Russia holding 16% of EU uranium supply, 24% of conversion and 23% of enrichment capacity. Kazakhstan supplied 20% of EU and 28% of US utility uranium, but much of its output is locked into long-term contracts with China, Russia and India, tightening Western access. Sprott’s Jacob White notes only 37 million lb U₃O₈ has been contracted globally for 2026, while long-term prices have already climbed to US$94/lb, the highest in 18 years.

Central Nevada Gold has completed a US$20 million acquisition of Newmont’s past‑producing Mule Canyon mine in Nevada, targeting a prefeasibility study and key permits in H2 2027 ahead of a potential 2028 construction decision. Mule Canyon previously produced about 500,000 oz gold at an average head grade of 3.8 g/t with ~94% metallurgical recovery, and comes with a database of 2,149 drill holes totalling over 335,000 metres across six mineralised zones over 2.5 km. The company plans an IPO as early as 2027 after a 20‑hole metallurgical and infill drilling programme to upgrade inferred resources and de‑risk the project.

Greenland Mines has secured government approval under the Greenland Mineral Activities Act for the indirect transfer of the Sarfartoq carbonatite complex exploration licence, clearing a key condition in its US$35 million acquisition from Neo Performance Materials, which retains offtake rights to up to 60% of future ore or concentrate. The Nd-Pr-enriched project, about 60 km from Kangerlussuaq, carries a historic NI 43-101 resource with 5.88 Mt indicated at 1.77% TREO and 2.46 Mt inferred at 1.59% TREO, based on 23,000 m of drilling. The news sent Greenland Mines’ NASDAQ-listed shares up more than 22%, giving the company a market capitalisation of US$31.4 million.

New American Industrial Alliance and supply chain AI firm Exiger have launched the “Ground Truth” Critical Minerals Readiness Survey to map gaps between US industrial demand and available domestic or allied supply, following White House Executive Order 14415 on defence supply chains. The survey drills down to unmet needs by spec, grade, alloy and purity, and contrasts reshoring goals with actual sourcing capabilities across NAIA’s member base and wider manufacturers. Results, processed via Exiger’s 1EXIGER.AI platform, will feed a policy and investment “blueprint” to be unveiled on 16 September 2026 in Washington, DC.

Perenti Ltd has agreed to sell its BTP mining equipment rental and parts business to Beetle Industries Pty Ltd, an investment vehicle for a private consortium led by Cratus Group, which operates across Australia, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. The transaction removes a non-core fleet and component supply arm from Perenti’s balance sheet, while giving Cratus a platform to expand its resources, logistics and structural capital offering into heavy mobile equipment support. For mine operators, the deal signals potential changes in availability and pricing of rental fleets and component rebuild services across these regional markets.

Major works at the Henderson Road–Ferntree Gully Road intersection in Knoxfield are now complete, targeting congestion for the 40,000 vehicles using Ferntree Gully Road each day. Crews have delivered a new left‑turn slip lane from Henderson Road and associated signal and lane configuration changes to separate turning and through movements. The upgrade is expected to reduce queue lengths and conflict points at this high‑volume junction, with direct implications for pavement performance, signal timing plans and future traffic modelling on the surrounding arterial network.

Major Australian gold producers have reported strong FY26 results, with Ramelius Resources posting underlying EBITDA of $765.4 million and a record earnings margin despite slower-than-expected production. The company’s performance was driven by higher realised gold prices and disciplined cost control across its Western Australian operations, including Mt Magnet and Edna May. For mine planners and financiers, the numbers signal robust cash generation capacity even under production headwinds, supporting continued investment in brownfield expansions and targeted exploration.

Newmont has appointed former BHP Group chief financial officer Peter Beaven to its board of directors, with Beaven to join on 1 September 2026 and expected to serve on the audit committee. Beaven previously held the BHP CFO role from 2014 to 2020, overseeing capital allocation and balance sheet strategy during major portfolio simplification and divestment phases. His appointment signals continued emphasis on disciplined capital management and governance as Newmont integrates recent acquisitions and manages a multi-continent gold and copper asset base.

Meeka Metals has intersected visible gold about 300m below the current Turnberry underground resource in Western Australia’s Murchison region, signalling potential depth extensions to the orebody. Diamond hole 26TBRD010 hit visible gold at 632.8m down-hole within a broad shear zone containing chalcopyrite, pyrite, albite and magnetite, pointing to a sulphide-rich, structurally controlled system. Assays are pending, with results expected in September after detailed core logging, which will guide further deep drilling and resource modelling.

Beacon Minerals has more than tripled the Ore Reserve at its Iguana gold deposit in Western Australia to 11 million tonnes at 1.20g/t for 430,200oz, up from 132,200oz, supporting a nine-year mine life. The updated plan is forecast to generate $841 million in undiscounted pre-tax free cash flow, signalling a materially larger open-pit and/or underground schedule and longer commitment to associated waste dumps, tailings capacity and haulage infrastructure. Geotechnical and mine planning teams will need to revisit pit slopes, dewatering and fleet sizing to optimise the expanded reserve.

MGX Resources is deploying a $412.1 million cash and investment pool to fast‑track the Central Tanami gold project in the Northern Territory, focusing on accelerated drilling, site infrastructure upgrades and underground mine preparations. The 50 per cent‑owned Central Tanami Project Joint Venture is moving towards commencement of the Groundrush underground operation, shifting MGX’s portfolio away from iron ore. For engineers, the spend signals imminent demand for geotechnical design of underground stopes, ground support and dewatering, plus haul road and camp upgrades along the Tanami Road corridor.

Ridgway Rentals has added three of JCB’s new VM118D single-drum soil compactors, plus 220X tracked excavators and articulated booms, to its 400-strong JCB fleet via Gunn JCB, with the units immediately deployed on quarrying, waste, infrastructure and housebuilding projects. The 10+ tonne VM118D uses a 55 kW JCB 430 EU Stage V diesel engine that uniquely meets the standard without DEF, cutting fluid logistics, system complexity and maintenance for site teams. Ridgway cites strong utilisation of JCB compaction rollers and flexible JCB Finance structures as key drivers for the latest investment.

McLaughlin & Harvey has completed a new community diagnostic centre at Braintree Community Hospital for Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, designed to deliver around 75,000 additional diagnostic appointments in its first year. The facility will run seven days a week and support CT and MRI scans, ultrasound, phlebotomy, and heart and lung checks, with final fit-out and equipment installation due before first patients arrive in early September. Delivered through the Crown Commercial Services framework as part of a national, government-funded capacity programme, it signals continued demand for healthcare-focused building and MEP contractors.

HLM Architects has appointed Russell Geary as associate, emergency services lead, bringing over 10 years’ experience delivering classified, high-security police facilities for forces across England and Wales. Based in HLM’s Birmingham studio and registered with the ARB since 2011, Geary is known for trauma-informed custody and operational environments that balance secure containment with staff and detainee welfare. His role signals an expansion of HLM’s blue-light capability for complex, high-security public-sector projects across the UK, with emphasis on resilience and people-centred layouts.

Caddick Construction has appointed former Bowmer & Kirkland senior contracts manager Mark Lambkin as construction director for the East Midlands to expand its regional pipeline. Lambkin brings experience from high-rise residential schemes including Capital&Centric’s £60m Goods Yard build-to-rent project in Stoke-on-Trent and the £130m IQ Echo Street student accommodation tower in Manchester, covering full project lifecycles. A CIOB member familiar with Building Safety Act gateway approvals, he will work alongside recently appointed East Midlands regional managing director Paul Sykes to steer complex, compliance‑critical schemes.

Network Rail has launched a £93m, multi-lot design-and-build framework for rock cutting remediation and associated geotechnical works across its Wales (£40.8m) and Western (£36.8m) regions. The three-year framework, extendable by up to two years, covers investigation, design, construction and handback for rock cut stabilisation, earthwork drainage upgrades and burrowing management on operational rail corridors. Contractors will act as Principal Contractor and, where required, Principal Designer, with separate appointments planned for each region but the option to bid for both.

Majestic Construction has installed a new rail-seating safe standing system in the South Stand at Huddersfield Town’s Accu Stadium, using a single continuous rail barrier in front of existing seats with individually numbered standing positions to improve crowd control and reduce overcrowding risk. The contractor, now renewed as Huddersfield Town’s official construction partner under a new two-year agreement to at least the 2026/27 season, has previously delivered a new press area, additional directors’ seats, a large screen and fixed water stations. Huddersfield Town now joins six other EFL League One clubs adopting safe standing.

Hardies Chartered Surveyors has acquired Storrier & Donaldson Quantity Surveyors, bringing owner Robert Currie into Hardies’ Glasgow operation as a consultant partner alongside the Shepherd and Hardies team. Storrier & Donaldson adds more than 50 years of UK-wide cost management experience on hospital ward refurbishments, public libraries, golf courses, major capital frameworks and large commercial schemes, plus specialist work on historical and listed buildings. The deal materially strengthens Hardies’ quantity surveying capacity in Glasgow and the west of Scotland, particularly for complex, multi-funding conservation, refurbishment and new-build projects.

Blade Lifting and Logistics has placed a multi-unit order with Böcker UK for long, lightweight truck-mounted cranes, taking initial delivery of an AK 48 with a 3‑tonne capacity and 49‑metre boom. The AK 48 features a high-output hydraulic system enabling rapid self-assembly, hook speeds of up to 60 m/min and fast slewing/boom movements suited to tight urban and industrial sites. Further Böcker units are scheduled for delivery in 2026 and 2027, signalling a longer-term fleet shift towards compact, high-reach aluminium cranes for UK lifting projects.

Groundforce Shorco modular hydraulic props are being used by Lashi Contractors to support a 35m by 46m, up to 6m-deep basement excavation for a 61-apartment development for Callisto Homes in Chatham, formed within a secant-piled wall and concrete capping beam. To deal with the sloping site and stepped capping beam, Groundforce dispensed with a waling beam and instead cast corbels into the capping beam, installing six knee-braced MP50, MP150 and MP250 props, including 23m-long MP250s with 813mm-diameter tubes. With a Victorian property on shallow foundations immediately adjacent, three braces carry Senceive wireless load monitoring via 3G gateway, providing continuous load data and SMS alerts if preset thresholds are exceeded.

Drywall manufacturer Siniat has achieved a 5% reduction in carbon intensity across its plasterboard products following a £170m upgrade of its Bristol HQ production line (opened March 2025) and improvements at its Ferrybridge plant, enabling retirement of older, less energy‑efficient equipment. The programme forms part of parent company Etex’s target to cut Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 35% using higher recycled content, lower energy intensity per tonne and a zero‑waste‑to‑landfill approach. Verified Environmental Product Declarations now cover over 86% of Siniat products, giving designers and contractors project‑level carbon data aligned with UK Net Zero Carbon Building Standard reporting.

Dutch off-road tyre specialist Magna Tyres Group has appointed Arnold van Woerkum as CFO as it accelerates an international expansion strategy built around recent acquisitions such as Belgian distributor Forrez. The group forecasts annual turnover of about €275m in 2026 and is targeting €650m by 2029, signalling a substantial scale-up in supply capacity for OTR, construction and mining tyres. Van Woerkum, who joined in 2025 after more than a decade at Van Mossel Automotive Group, will tighten financial control and structure future M&A to support this growth.

AtkinsRéalis and Igloo Vision have delivered a 360° immersive visualisation facility at Sellafield’s RAICo1 centre in West Cumbria, accommodating around ten users and integrating remotely operated robotics with live data streaming to plan nuclear decommissioning. The system lets teams virtually walk restricted-area routes using real-time imagery from robotic platforms, with Sellafield estimating up to a 40% reduction in time spent in hazardous environments. Linked with the Immersion Room at Hinton House, Cheshire, the setup creates a connected ecosystem for simulation-based planning, training and rapid response to emerging site conditions.

NewSteel Mining and Chile’s Industrial and Mining Training Centre (CEIM) will convert a diesel Caterpillar 777D haul truck to battery-electric drive in a pilot project aimed at real-world mine deployment. The partnership will develop and integrate a full electric powertrain and battery system into the 90–100 t class truck while using the project as a training platform for mechanics, electricians and operators. For mines, the trial will provide data on duty cycles, energy consumption and maintenance needs for retrofitted large haulage fleets.

Devon MP Richard Foord is urging government funding for the “long-neglected” Exeter–London Waterloo rail line after successive summers of heatwaves forced closures by damaging the track bed. The route, a key secondary corridor to the South West alongside the Dawlish main line, has again seen rails and ballast affected by high rail temperatures exceeding design assumptions, prompting emergency speed restrictions and shutdowns. Engineers face growing pressure to upgrade formation, drainage and rail stress management to cope with more frequent extreme heat events.

Highland Council will tell members that none of the three remediation options identified in a structural report for Balnaan Bridge can be funded, ruling out works to reopen it to vehicular traffic. The bridge, currently restricted to pedestrians and cyclists, would require substantial strengthening and deck works to restore road loading, but estimated costs exceed available capital budgets. Engineers and transport planners now face longer diversion routes for local traffic and potential reclassification of the structure if no interim load-limited solution is pursued.

Fortescue is keeping an unnamed senior executive in role while law firm MinterEllison conducts an external investigation into sexual harassment and bullying allegations, as the miner also faces a June class action from JGA Saddler over workplace misconduct, harassment and sex discrimination. In its latest year Fortescue, with 16,154 employees, recorded 98 psychosocial breaches (down 20%), including 13 cases of inappropriate sexual contact, 10 of sexual harassment and one sexual assault, dismissing 11 workers for related code-of-conduct breaches. BHP reported terminating 109 employees for sexual harassment and 22 for racial harassment from 380 sexual harassment reports, while Rio Tinto logged 702 incidents to its employee care hub, indicating sustained legal and governance exposure on conduct across major Australian miners.

Europe’s push under the Critical Raw Materials Act to source 10% of strategic minerals domestically, process 40% and recycle 25% by 2030 is colliding with local resistance to projects such as Serbia’s Jadar lithium mine and Portugal’s Barroso development, where social licence rather than permitting speed is the binding constraint. Tobias Rossi argues that densely populated regions like Saxony lack Nevada-style buffers, making trust, long-term community engagement and credible environmental performance central to project viability. Recycling offers limited near-term relief, with the IEA expecting manufacturing scrap to dominate 2030 feedstock and high-profile recyclers Ascend Elements and Li-Cycle already in financial distress.

MMG has suspended operations at its Las Bambas open-pit copper mine in Peru after an accident during pump replacement at a clarification pond 9 km from the processing plant killed two workers and injured three, with Sunafil inspectors now investigating. The mine, owned by China Minmetals subsidiary MMG, produced 410,829 tonnes of copper in 2025—about 2% of global mined supply—and has faced more than 100 days of disruption in 2019 and a month-long shutdown in 2022 due to community blockades along its 450-km concentrate haul road. MMG plans a progressive restart from 21 August and has not revised 2026 production guidance, but any delay would tighten an already constrained South American concentrate market, where Lundin Mining has cut Chilean guidance by 10,000 tonnes on weather impacts.

A slope collapse at an open pit gold mine near Policarpa in Colombia’s Nariño department has killed 13 workers and injured seven, after a night-time landslide buried crews who were later recovered by firefighters and residents using excavators. Local authorities have not confirmed whether the operation had mining permits, despite witnesses saying around 50 people, mainly from the Quillacinga Indigenous group and including four victims from one family, regularly worked the site. The incident again exposes geotechnical and safety risks at Colombia’s largely unregulated artisanal and illegal gold mines, which involve an estimated 200,000–400,000 people.

Gold miners extended their August rally on Thursday despite a rebound in long-term US Treasury yields, with the VanEck Gold Miners ETF up 2.3% by 12:40 p.m. ET as Agnico Eagle, Newmont and Barrick gained about 2–2.2% while spot gold eased near $4,509. The move came as the 30-year Treasury yield touched 5.27% before settling around 5.25%, even after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged to at least double long-bond buybacks above the planned $4 billion and promised a fiscal consolidation plan. With US public debt now above $40 trillion and the deficit near $2 trillion, miners are trading as leveraged plays on sustained bullion strength driven by fiscal and yield uncertainty rather than day-to-day gold price moves.

Government funding is reshaping mine finance as the US deploys nearly $2 billion in mixed instruments, including a $1.4 billion conditional loan to Sila, about $400 million to Sunrise Energy Metals, $150 million to Niron Magnetics and over $180 million for mining education. GEM Consulting’s comparative map shows the US using the widest blend of loans, equity, grants, purchase rights and stockpiles, versus Canada’s focus on infrastructure and equity, Australia’s output rights and inventories, the EU’s public credit and permitting coordination, and Japan’s offtake-linked overseas finance. The study warns that without clear disclosure of guarantees, repayments and recovered rights, and without demonstrable “additionality”, public capital risks displacing private funding while expanding state strategic control over critical-mineral projects.

The Gitxsan Huwilp government has unanimously rescinded its support for Seabridge Gold’s KSM project in northwestern British Columbia, aligning with the Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha Nation (TSKLH) after a June 2026 B.C. Supreme Court ruling found the province breached its constitutional duty to consult TSKLH. KSM, located 65 km northwest of Stewart and scoped in a 2022 PFS at 47.3 million oz of gold and 7.3 billion lb of copper with an NPV of about C$8 billion, now faces renewed uncertainty over tailings and toxic waste risks. TSKLH cites threats to the Nass and Unuk river sheds, which support Pacific salmon and eulachon, and is demanding “true consultation” and shared decision-making.

Lassonde-backed Cadillac Mines reports infill drilling at the Kerr-Addison project in Ontario, with standout hole KAD26-428T cutting 23 m at 3.08 g/t gold from 259 m, including 6.4 m at 5.26 g/t, and KAD26-397 returning 38 m at 2.13 g/t from 192 m, supporting a larger open-pit resource case. The company is about two-thirds through a 17,850 m infill programme within the current pit shell, part of a 145,000 m, C$65 million 2026 drilling budget using 11 diamond rigs. Kerr-Addison currently hosts 78.5 Mt indicated at 1.34 g/t (3.38 Moz) and 25.9 Mt inferred at 2.66 g/t (2.21 Moz), with new drilling targeting lesser-tested footwall zones and step-outs northeast of existing blocks.