Geomechanics.io

Glencore remains deadlocked with Quebec over the future of its nearly 100-year-old Horne copper smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, where arsenic emissions must be cut from current levels to 45 ng/m³ by March and 15 ng/m³ from 2027—still five times the provincial standard. The company is weighing a US$200 million modernisation to meet the 15 ng/m³ target but is demanding an 18‑month transition period and guarantees against tighter future limits before committing. Closure would also threaten the Canadian Copper Refinery in Montreal, which relies on Horne’s 210,000 t/y copper and precious metals output, and comes amid an authorised class action over historical emissions.

MAX Power Mining has defined a new natural hydrogen drilling target at the Bracken prospect on the Saskatchewan–Montana border, complementing its confirmed Lawson discovery on the 475 km-long Genesis Trend. The Bracken well, planned to spud in February pending licensing, sits within the 75 km-wide Grasslands project and was sited using 34.3 line-km of proprietary 2D seismic integrated with legacy seismic to map basement architecture, structural pathways and migration corridors. MAX Power aims to use Bracken as a calibration point to test basin-scale continuity and repeatable, scalable natural hydrogen systems that may also host helium.

Funding approval from Hackney Council’s cabinet will deliver 400 new council homes across 14 infill sites, including nine terraced houses on the Nye Bevan Estate and an 18-home block replacing garages at Blackwell Close in Clapton. At least 300 units are designated for council social rent, funded through the Mayor of London’s Affordable Homes Fund and direct council capital, as part of a wider 972-home programme. The council notes current build costs above £500,000 per unit in London, signalling tight viability margins for dense urban social housing schemes.

National Highways chief executive Nick Harris is stepping down after five years in the role, with recruitment for a permanent successor to start in spring and interim leadership to be arranged by the board. Harris, who joined as operations director in 2016 after a career at Thames Water, earned more than £426,000 last year including bonuses and recently turned 60. His departure comes just before the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) period and a new safety strategy that set more demanding performance and outcomes targets for the strategic road network.

Sefton Council has selected Vinci Building as preferred contractor under a pre-construction services agreement for the £73m Marine Lake Events Centre in Southport, after talks with Kier and John Graham Construction collapsed in 2023. The scheme will replace the demolished Southport Theatre with a 1,200-seat auditorium and exhibition space on the lakefront, where extensive sheet piling and new retaining walls have already been installed as enabling works. Main construction is scheduled to start in late 2026 once the main contract is signed, with Vinci already engaged locally on the Bootle Strand regeneration.

Laing O’Rourke will start main construction this summer on the £250m, five-storey Sussex Cancer Centre at Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, following a 40‑week enabling works package that began in April 2024. The scheme, part of Wave 1 of the New Hospitals Programme and adjacent to Laing O’Rourke’s Louisa Martindale Building, will rely heavily on digital design and offsite manufacturing to control quality and reduce on-site disruption. Designed as a regional cancer hub, it is planned to open in 2029, tripling current capacity to treat around 60,000 patients a year.

Severfield is shutting its Severfield Modular Solutions (SMS) business after a strategic review by new chief executive Paul McNerney, who joined from Laing O’Rourke in November and deemed SMS a sub‑scale, non-core activity. SMS, incorporated in 2018, reported 12% turnover growth to £24.1m and a 154% rise in operating profit to £368,000 for the year to March 2025, driven by renewable energy and data centre work, but has faced a tougher modular market this year. The closure affects more than 140 employees, while the Construction Metal Forming (CMF) joint venture continues unchanged, with a wider core-business growth strategy due in 2026.

Civil engineering contractors, through the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, have urged the Competition & Markets Authority’s road and rail market study to push harder for early contractor involvement, outcome-based specifications and frameworks tied to clear, funded pipelines with minimum workload commitments. CECA wants procurement to move away from lowest-price weighting towards whole-life value, with objectively scored criteria for quality, deliverability, safety culture, carbon reduction and social value. The response also calls for streamlined regulatory approvals for new products and techniques, consistent national standards, and stronger commercial and engineering skills within client bodies.

Tensions are escalating between Femern A/S and the main contractors on the Fehmarnbelt Fixed Link immersed tunnel between Denmark and Germany as tunnel element submersion has still not begun despite schedule and budget overruns. Senior-level correspondence reportedly details disputes over responsibility for delays to placing the 18km-long immersed elements and associated marine works in the Baltic Sea. Prolonged stand-off risks further cost escalation, extended use of temporary works and marine plant, and knock-on impacts on rail and road connection programmes on both sides of the border.

A proposed amendment to the UK Railways Bill to devolve control of rail infrastructure and services to the Welsh Government has been rejected, prolonging disputes between Westminster and the Senedd over chronic underinvestment in routes such as the South Wales Main Line and Valleys commuter network. The decision leaves Network Rail and Great British Railways, rather than Transport for Wales, as primary decision-makers on track renewals, signalling upgrades and capacity enhancements. For civil and rail engineers, major schemes like electrification, station remodelling and resilience works will continue to be planned and funded through UK-wide, not devolved, budgets.

Work on the $16bn Hudson Tunnel rail project under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey is set to cease next week after a halt in federal funding, with the White House blaming Democrat resistance to a wider border security deal and “illegal aliens”. The scheme, part of the Gateway Program, includes twin rail tunnels and major approach works designed to increase Amtrak and NJ Transit capacity and rehabilitate the existing 1910 North River Tunnel. A prolonged stop risks contractor demobilisation, schedule slippage and higher costs on complex riverbed and urban tunnelling packages.

Beam lifts on National Highways’ M3 Junction 9 scheme in South Hampshire will start this weekend, marking the next construction phase for reconfiguring the existing roundabout that links the M3 with the A34 strategic freight route. The works involve installing new bridge beams over live carriageways to create additional free-flow links and reduce weaving between northbound A34 and southbound M3 traffic. Temporary traffic management and overnight possessions will be critical for crane operations, with geotechnical checks on existing embankments and foundations needed to accommodate altered load paths and construction plant.

Ramboll engineers have developed a grid-stabilising device aimed at countering frequency and voltage instability as inverter-based renewable generation is added to ageing transmission and distribution networks. The unit is designed to provide synthetic inertia and fast reactive power support, acting as a grid-forming resource that can be retrofitted at substations without major reinforcement works. For civil and electrical designers, this points to more compact, modular stabilisation plant competing with traditional synchronous condensers and potentially reducing the need for large new switchyard footprints.

Automating back analysis in Rocscience RS2 is enabling geotechnical teams to calibrate deep excavation models by iteratively adjusting soil stiffness, strength parameters and support properties against monitored wall deflections and ground movements. The workflow uses Python scripting and RS2’s API to batch-run hundreds of finite element models, compare calculated displacements with inclinometer data, and systematically narrow parameter ranges instead of relying on manual trial‑and‑error. This approach scales to large projects with multiple stages and construction sequences, improving confidence in design envelopes and trigger levels for observational method schemes.

Rio Tinto and Aluminum Corporation of China Limited (Chalco) have agreed a joint venture, owned 33% by Rio Tinto and 67% by Chalco, to acquire Votorantim’s 68.596% controlling stake in Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio (CBA), a vertically integrated low‑carbon aluminium producer in Brazil. CBA’s portfolio spans bauxite mining, alumina refining and aluminium smelting/rolling, giving the JV immediate access to upstream ore and downstream semi‑fabricated products in a single platform. The deal signals stronger Chinese–Anglo participation in Brazil’s aluminium value chain, with implications for bauxite offtake, power‑intensive smelting capacity and low‑carbon product supply.

Navoi Mining & Metallurgical Company has commissioned Grinding Mill No. 8 at Hydrometallurgical Plant No. 3 as part of Phase III of its Kokpatas and Daugyztau gold ore mining project. The new grinding capacity is designed to support expanded ore throughput from the two open pits, feeding downstream hydrometallurgical circuits at the plant. For process engineers, the additional mill will affect grind size control, reagent consumption and leach kinetics, and may require updated liner strategies and power draw management across the grinding circuit.

AI is increasingly embedded across BHP’s operations, with machine-learning models now supporting exploration teams in targeting new mineral deposits and optimising large processing plants and rail networks. Algorithms are being used to interpret multi-source geological datasets, predict equipment and process upsets earlier, and tune plant control strategies in near real time. For geotechnical and mining engineers, this signals more data-driven design and operational decisions, tighter process envelopes, and earlier intervention on stability, maintenance and throughput constraints.

Atlas Iron, owned by Hancock Prospecting, has approved Stage 2 of its Sanjiv Ridge iron ore project in Western Australia’s Pilbara, expanding production from the existing Sanjiv Ridge and nearby Miralga Creek deposits. The development will rely on conventional open-pit mining, haul trucks and on-site crushing before road haulage to port, leveraging existing Pilbara logistics rather than new rail. For geotechnical and civil contractors, the decision signals upcoming work in pit wall design, haul road construction and waste dump earthworks in hard banded iron formation terrain.

Nagambie Resources has signed a binding term sheet with Alkane Resources for a proposed joint venture over the historic Nagambie gold–antimony mine in central Victoria, targeting high-grade underground mineralisation rather than the site’s former open-pit operations. Alkane, which operates the Tomingley gold mine in New South Wales, would fund exploration and evaluation drilling to earn into the project, focusing on structurally controlled gold–stibnite lodes. The deal signals renewed interest in Victorian antimony-bearing systems, with potential implications for underground geotechnical design in historically backfilled and partially rehabilitated workings.

True North Copper has boosted confidence in its Mt Oxide project in Queensland with new drilling at the Wallace North and Great Australia deposits, targeting higher-grade copper zones near existing underground development. ACDC Metals advanced rare earths and mineral sands exploration at its Goschen Central and Watchem projects in Victoria, reporting thick, near-surface clay-hosted REE and Ti-Zr mineralisation amenable to low-strip-ratio open pit concepts. Western Yilgarn continued greenfields work across its Julimar West and Bulga projects in Western Australia, using detailed gravity and EM surveys to refine intrusion-hosted nickel-copper-PGE targets before deeper drilling.

Barloworld has completed its transition to a privately held, South African-led Caterpillar dealership group after an Entsha-led consortium acquired the company and it delisted from the JSE and A2X, with Entsha holding 51% and Saudi-based Zahid Group 49%. The structure creates a Saudi–South African alignment across Cat mining and construction equipment distribution, linking Zahid’s established dealership operations in the Middle East with Barloworld’s footprint in southern Africa. For mine operators, the combined ownership is likely to influence fleet support strategies, parts logistics, and long-term service contracts across both regions.

Navoi Mining & Metallurgical Company has commissioned a new “cyclic-flow” in-pit crushing and conveying (IPCC) system on the southern flank of the Muruntau open pit to optimise ore transport to permanent and temporary stockpiles. The complex integrates truck haulage to an in-pit crusher with belt conveyors for continuous ore transfer, reducing reliance on long uphill truck ramps and diesel-intensive haul cycles. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, the layout fixes pit exit points and ramp geometries, influencing future pushback design and slope stability management around conveyor corridors.

IEEFA research challenges Australian federal forecasts of peaking diesel emissions from mining, arguing actual diesel use is still climbing as haul distances increase, ore grades fall and material movement intensifies. The analysis links this growth to miners cutting decarbonisation capital budgets, delaying deployment of battery-electric haul trucks, in-pit crushing and conveying, and site-scale renewables with grid-strength batteries. For geotechnical and mine planners, the findings signal continued reliance on diesel-powered haulage fleets and associated ventilation, pit slope and haul road design loads through at least the medium term.

Peru’s government has formally endorsed Lima as host city for the World Mining Congress (WMC) 2026, calling the event a strategic milestone for both the country and the global mining sector. The announcement by the Minister of Energy and Mines positions Peru’s large copper, gold and polymetallic operations, including its high-altitude Andean open pits and underground mines, at the centre of technical dialogue on productivity, decarbonisation and social licence. Organisers are expected to leverage Lima’s established mining supply chain and academic base to attract senior operators, OEMs and technology providers.