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Zijin Gold will acquire Canada’s Allied Gold for about C$5.5 billion in cash, paying C$44 per share—a 5.4% premium to Allied’s last close and 27% above its 30‑day average—as it accelerates overseas expansion amid record bullion prices. The deal adds three African producing mines expected to deliver up to 400,000 oz/y of gold, with Mali’s Sadiola contributing roughly half, plus the Kurmuk development project in Ethiopia and operations in Ivory Coast. A C$220 million break fee, Mali jurisdiction risk and the all‑cash structure may deter rival bids from peers such as Endeavour Mining and Fortuna.

Rio2 has poured first gold at its $235 million Fenix mine in Chile’s Atacama region, producing 897 oz on 23 January after a 358 oz commissioning pour in December, with both pours also yielding about 131 oz of silver. The run-of-mine heap leach operation, located on the Maricunga gold belt, avoids crushing and tailings infrastructure and is ramping toward 20,000 tonnes of ore per day, targeting 60,000–70,000 oz of gold in 2026. Construction created roughly 1,200 jobs, with about 550 permanent roles planned over the mine’s 17-year life.

The US Department of Commerce has agreed a non-binding $1.6 billion package for USA Rare Earth under the CHIPS programme, combining $277 million in federal funding with a $1.3 billion senior secured loan and taking a 10% equity stake via 16.1 million shares plus 17.6 million warrants at $17.17. Together with a separate $1.5 billion PIPE at $21.50 per share, USAR could raise $3.1 billion to accelerate its Round Top project in Texas, targeting 40,000 t/d of feed and 8,000 tpa of processed rare earth products by 2030. The funding underpins a US “mine-to-magnet” chain including a 5,000 tpa NdFeB magnet plant in Stillwater, Oklahoma (planned to double to 10,000 tpa), HREE metal and alloy capacity via Less Common Metals (10,000 tpa), and DOE-backed digital twin work on HREE separation at Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

Hemlo Mining’s latest drilling at the Williams property in Ontario has defined a new E-Zone about 300 metres west of existing underground infrastructure, with hole 6702503 returning 10.9 metres at 4.65 g/t gold from 165 metres and 5 metres at 15.79 g/t from 534 metres, and hole 6702505 cutting 12 metres at 7.08 g/t from 599 metres. The E-Zone currently extends roughly 1,000 metres vertically and 500 metres east–west, remains open at depth, and is hosted in volcanic–sedimentary rocks with quartz-carbonate vein systems analogous to the long-producing C-Zone. Hemlo plans a 300-metre exploration drift this year to access the zone and infill drilling to test continuity along strike and at depth, with results expected to feed into a mineral resource update later this quarter.

Pope Leo XIV met more than a dozen mining and energy leaders at the Vatican, including BHP’s Mike Henry, Vale’s Gustavo Pimenta, Ivanhoe Mines’ Robert Friedland and Sigma Lithium’s Ana Cabral, to press for “integral ecology” and stricter ethical standards in resource extraction. The session, under the Building Bridges Initiative and linked to projects such as Borgo Laudato Si’, focused on human rights, decent work and environmental justice in critical minerals supply chains. Leo cited coltan from the DRC as emblematic of minerals enabling modern devices but tied to paramilitary violence, child labour and community displacement.

Gold surged as much as 2.5% to a record ~$5,111/oz on Monday, with silver jumping to $113.60/oz, as investors expanded the “debasement trade” amid concerns over US and Japanese sovereign debt and heightened geopolitical risk from moves such as the Trump administration’s Greenland annexation agenda and intervention in Venezuela. Central banks remain strong buyers, while family offices and first‑time private investors across Asia and Europe are rapidly adding bullion, according to the World Gold Council and BullionVault. Forecasts now pitch year‑end gold at $5,400–$6,000/oz (Goldman Sachs, SocGen, Morgan Stanley), with bookmakers William Hill offering 7/4 on $5,500.

British Columbia is adding C$3 million to shore up mineral claims permitting, with C$1 million for extra Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals staff to enforce fixed timelines and C$2 million to bolster the Mineral Claims Consultation Framework (MCCF) launched in March 2025. The move comes as mineral exploration spending hits a record C$750.9 million, yet MCCF decisions are averaging 127 days against a 90–120 day target and mineral claims staking has fallen 29%, with a 60% drop in area staked versus the seven-year average. AME CEO Todd Stone said the funding is critical for prospectors and juniors seeking predictable approvals.

Gold’s surge to a new record above US$5,100/oz, up 15% year-to-date and extending its strongest run since 1979, is being framed by investor Kevin O’Leary as validation of gold as a permanent 5% portfolio hedge rather than a trade. O’Leary stresses holding physical bullion in 100 g and 1 kg bars with paid vault storage, supplemented by coins for liquidity, and rebalancing the position quarterly. He argues institutional investors such as sovereign wealth and pension funds typically hold 5–19% in gold, while compliance rules still keep most of them out of cryptocurrencies.

A Staffordshire site manager who obstructed Health & Safety Executive (HSE) inspectors after they spotted two workers accessing a roof from an excavator bucket on 11 February 2025 has been fined £3,000, with £6,450 costs and a £1,200 victim surcharge by Birmingham Magistrates Court. David Robert Lane, 59, refused to identify himself, claimed workers were unpaid relatives, issued threats, and later sent expletive-laden emails after being charged under two counts of section 33(1)(h) of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. HSE, which conducts more than 13,000 inspections annually, signalled it will prosecute in rare cases of serious obstruction.

Hull City Council has launched procurement for a lead development partner on its £100m Albion Square scheme, a mixed-use, residential-led redevelopment of a vacant but strategically located city centre site. Bidders, responding via YORtender and uk.eu-supply.com, must submit a masterplan, design vision and full financial appraisal aligned with the council’s regeneration objectives. The partner will be expected to secure funding, lead delivery, and retain a long-term interest in the site, implying early contractor involvement on phasing, ground risk and urban infrastructure interfaces.

Van Elle reported pre-tax profit of £1.7m on £73.4m revenue for the six months to 31 October 2025, with underlying operating margin easing to 2.8% from 3.4% despite a 13% top-line increase. Revenue mix shifted away from house-building (down from 44% to 32% of group revenue) towards infrastructure (up from 39% to 44%) and a 65% jump in regional construction turnover to £17.3m, driven largely by the Sheffield Forgemasters project. The UK order book reached £44.9m, 8% higher year-on-year, following the disposal of Van Elle Canada.

Connected Living London will forward fund and acquire a £68.4m, 195-home build-to-rent scheme at Chiswick Reach on Bollo Lane, West London, to be developed with Barratt Redrow in Grainger’s first BTR collaboration with a major UK housebuilder. The project, which has detailed planning consent and Building Safety Regulator Gateway 2 approval, includes 4,299 sq ft of commercial space and 5,499 sq ft of internal amenity space such as co-working areas and a gym. Construction is due to start within weeks, with practical completion targeted for late 2028.

Demolition and site clearance have begun on two 1960s buildings at the Elmbank Gardens site beside Glasgow’s Charing Cross station, the £250m first phase of the Charing Cross Gateway masterplan led by developer CXG Glasgow and demolition contractor Reigart Contracts. The works, running to August 2026, follow outline consent in late 2024 and a detailed student accommodation application in May 2025, with a “minded to grant” notice issued in December 2025. Network Rail and Glasgow City Council approvals require a temporary footpath and short-term diversions on Newton Street to maintain access to the Britannia Hotel and the station.

Construction output in the UK is now forecast by the Construction Products Association to grow just 1.7% in 2026, down from 2.8% predicted in October, with private housing output cut to 1.5% growth and private housing RMI expected to contract by 1.0%. Infrastructure remains the main volume driver, with 3.9% growth in 2026 anchored by energy generation and grid projects, AMP8 water investment and ongoing work at Hinkley Point C despite HS2 and roads pipeline uncertainty. The CPA says the modest growth outlook depends heavily on commercial fit-out and refurbishment and timely delivery of public sector building programmes for schools, hospitals and prisons.

Infrastructure tender prices in the UK are forecast by Turner & Townsend’s Winter 2025 UK Market Intelligence report to rise 5.0% annually for infrastructure and 3.5% for real estate through 2026–27, a 0.5 percentage point increase on last year’s tender price inflation. New orders jumped 29.3% year-on-year to Q3 2024, while the sector has lost around 50,000 workers in 12 months, signalling a tightening capacity squeeze just as the Planning and Infrastructure Act accelerates project starts. Turner & Townsend urges earlier supply chain engagement, mutual incentives and continuous viability reviews beyond the initial procurement decision.

Modulex Modular Buildings has acquired a majority stake in newly formed Merit Industrialised Construction Limited, securing Merit's Cramlington factory assets, proprietary digital platform and validated design library for hospitals, clean rooms, biotech and pharmaceutical facilities. The deal underpins Modulex’s new modular steel MegaFactory in India, where it plans to manufacture high-specification modular kits for export back to the UK and other markets, targeting hospital buildings, data centres and science facilities. Integrated design–engineering–costing on a single platform promises rapid, fully costed designs and early-stage cost certainty, with reduced bespoke engineering.

UCL’s Megaproject Delivery Centre founding director Juliano Denicol sets out a research-led approach to improving delivery of multi‑billion‑pound schemes such as HS2 and Crossrail, focusing on governance, contracting models and systems integration. He stresses early definition of scope and interfaces, disciplined change control and portfolio‑level learning from more than 30 international case studies of rail, energy and tunnelling projects. Denicol also calls for clients to build in‑house capability in data analytics and assurance, using consistent performance baselines rather than ad‑hoc KPIs to manage cost and schedule risk.

A new digital Built Environment Competence Hub has been launched by the British Standards Institution (BSI) to clarify how competence requirements are defined and applied across UK construction and infrastructure projects. The online resource is intended to help dutyholders interpret evolving regulatory obligations, particularly around building safety and competence frameworks introduced after the Building Safety Act. For geotechnical, structural and civil engineers, it centralises guidance on role-specific competence expectations, supporting more consistent documentation for audits, procurement and regulatory submissions.

Dayton-Phoenix Group has completed validation testing of its VOLT hybrid locomotive power solution, which retrofits directly to existing diesel-electric locomotives used on industrial and mine site rail systems. The VOLT system operates as an add-on hybrid module rather than a full locomotive replacement, targeting lower fuel burn and emissions while retaining the original traction equipment and control architecture. For mine operators, this offers a brownfield decarbonisation path for in-pit and plant rail without scrapping current diesel fleets or reconfiguring track layouts.

Metso’s HRC 8 high pressure grinding roll, distributed in southern Africa by Pilot Crushtec, is being deployed to convert crusher fines and other unsaleable by-products into high-quality manufactured sand with tightly controlled particle shape. The compact HPGR unit is engineered for tertiary and quaternary crushing, using inter-particle compression to improve cubicality and reduce overgrinding compared with cone crushers. For mines and quarries, this allows higher overall plant yield from existing deposits and can cut waste stockpiles and associated environmental liabilities.

Robit’s down-the-hole drilling tools have completed competitive field trials at the La Arena open-pit gold-copper mine in northern Peru, located on the Andean porphyry copper-gold belt. Testing focused on hammer and bit performance in high-altitude, hard-rock conditions typical of large porphyry deposits, with Robit equipment reported to maintain penetration rates and wear life against rival systems. For mine operators, the results point to potential reductions in bit change-out frequency and more consistent blast-hole quality in similar Andean geologies.

Eldorado Gold reports that automation is already being built into development at the Skouries underground gold project in Greece, with the mine advancing alongside the Olympias Expansion and Perama Hill projects as part of a coordinated growth plan. The company is progressing a high-grade, underground operation designed from the outset for automated production systems, including remote-capable mobile equipment and centralised control infrastructure. For mine planners and engineers, Skouries signals further integration of automation into European hard‑rock underground projects, with associated implications for layout, communications, and workforce deployment.

Zijin Mining has commissioned Phase 2 of the Julong Copper Mine on 23 January 2026, adding 200,000 t/d of new mining and processing capacity to the existing 150,000 t/d operation. The expansion lifts total ore throughput to 350,000 t/d, positioning Julong among the world’s larger open-pit copper operations by plant scale. Geotechnical and plant engineers will now be managing significantly higher pit slopes, waste movement and tailings volumes, with corresponding demands on haulage, dewatering and process water circuits.

Zijin Mining has passed 1,000 MW of installed clean energy capacity across its global operations, driven by projects such as a 70 MW wind farm at Bayannur Zijin in China and a 23.87 MW solar plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The company is also beginning in-house production of electric mining trucks in partnership with Longking, targeting large open-pit fleets. For mine planners and electrical engineers, the combination of on-site renewables and OEM-level truck development signals a push towards integrated power–haulage systems and reduced diesel dependency.