Geomechanics.io

Fortescue Metals has reported record first-half iron ore shipments from its Pilbara operations while advancing a major renewables build-out to cut diesel and gas use across mines and rail. The company is progressing large-scale solar and wind installations tied into its high-voltage transmission network and battery storage, aiming to displace fossil fuel power at processing plants and dewatering systems. For mine planners and engineers, the shift implies future pit, haul road and plant layouts will need to accommodate renewable generation footprints and grid-integration infrastructure.

The Western Australian Government has extended its coal supply agreement with Griffin Coal beyond July 2026 by up to five years to maintain fuel to the 854MW Collie power stations during the state’s staged coal-fired generation exit. The extension secures continued open-cut operations at the Collie mine, which has historically supplied several million tonnes of thermal coal per year to Synergy under long-term contracts. For geotechnical and mining teams, the decision signals ongoing pit stability management, overburden handling and progressive rehabilitation planning on a multi-year horizon rather than rapid closure.

Energy Fuels’ proposed acquisition of Australian Strategic Materials, owner of the Dubbo rare earths and critical minerals project in New South Wales, signals accelerating competition for advanced projects ahead of 2026. Iluka Resources is progressing its Eneabba rare earths refinery in Western Australia, designed to process monazite concentrate from its Eneabba mineral sands operations into separated oxides. Other 2026‑watch projects include Arafura Rare Earths’ Nolans in the NT, Hastings’ Yangibana in the Gascoyne, and Lynas’ Kalgoorlie cracking and leaching plant, all targeting neodymium–praseodymium supply.

Two major Victorian road intersection projects are advancing, with Fulton Hogan awarded the Henderson Road–Ferntree Gully Road upgrade in Knoxfield and an $83.5 million contract let for the Ballan Road intersection in Melbourne’s west. Works will reconfigure both intersections to improve traffic flow and reduce congestion while adding safer walking and cycling movements through new signalisation and layout changes. Civil contractors can expect significant pavement reconstruction, drainage adjustments and staged traffic management on constrained urban corridors.

The Worley Arcadis Joint Venture has secured the marine technical advisory contract for Western Australia’s Westport programme, one of the state’s largest infrastructure undertakings centred on a new container port and associated road and rail links in Kwinana. The JV will advise on channel alignment, berth layout, breakwaters and dredging strategies, feeding into detailed planning for deep-water access and long-term port capacity beyond Fremantle’s current constraints. Geotechnical, coastal and structural inputs from this work will strongly influence reclamation design, ground improvement requirements and future marine construction methodologies.

Versarien’s collapse puts its Cementene graphene-enhanced concrete admixture in doubt, raising questions over whether graphene additives can achieve consistent performance, certification and cost benefits in mainstream construction mixes. The UK Supreme Court’s Providence v Hexagon ruling is described as a landmark for late payment law, with implications for drafting and enforcing construction payment terms and adjudication strategies. A young plant hire firm in northeast England is reported to be achieving around 40% pre-tax margins, signalling strong demand and tight fleet management in regional equipment supply.

Rail minister Lord Hendy has conceded that a new high-capacity rail line between the West Midlands and Crewe may be required earlier than Northern Powerhouse Rail because the West Coast Main Line is already close to its train path limits. The section between Birmingham, Stafford and Crewe is a key mixed-traffic bottleneck, carrying intercity, commuter and heavy freight services on shared tracks. Earlier delivery of this link would force a re-think of phasing, interfaces with existing WCML junctions and future-proofing for higher line speeds and longer trains.

Sandvik is overhauling its global warranty processes for underground and surface mining equipment fleets to create a single, standardised framework across all regions and product lines. The company aims to give mine operators clearer visibility of coverage terms, claim status and component life data for assets such as DS422iE longhole drills and loaders, reducing variation between local service centres. Tighter, globally consistent warranty rules are likely to influence maintenance planning, spares strategies and total cost-of-ownership calculations for both greenfield and brownfield operations.

Robson Civil Projects has been recognised for record-breaking rehabilitation and land management at BHP’s Mt Arthur Coal Mine in the Hunter Valley, where progressive closure works are reshaping large open-cut pits and overburden dumps into stable final landforms. The contractor has delivered high-volume bulk earthworks, topsoil placement and contour ripping, combined with erosion control structures and native pasture and woodland revegetation tailored to local catchments. For geotechnical and civil teams, the project shows large-scale integration of slope regrading, drainage reconfiguration and long-term stability design within an active coal operation.

Westgold Resources posted a “blockbuster” December 2025 quarter, roughly doubling operating cashflow on the back of record gold production from its Western Australian underground and open-pit operations and a strong Australian-dollar gold price. The company flagged higher mill throughput and improved head grades across key assets such as Big Bell and Bluebird, with unit costs falling despite inflationary pressure on labour and explosives. Strong cash generation gives Westgold more room to fund sustaining capital for underground development, accelerate resource drilling, and consider debt reduction or dividends without curbing mine-life extension work.

Bellevue Gold lifted December quarter production to 37,338oz at its Western Australian Bellevue project, up from 27,338oz in the September quarter, driven by higher mined grades averaging 7.1g/t gold. The company processed 176,000 tonnes of ore through the 1Mtpa nameplate plant, with recoveries reported at 96 per cent as underground stoping ramped up across the Armand, Deacon and Bellevue lodes. Management reaffirmed guidance of 75,000–85,000oz for the June 2024 half-year, signalling continued optimisation of stope sequencing and grade control.

Researchers at Monash University have developed a hydrometallurgical process to recover high‑purity critical metals from spent lithium‑ion batteries using greener reagents than conventional strong mineral acids. Led by PhD student Parisa Biniaz and Dr Parama Banerjee, the lab‑scale method targets elements such as lithium, cobalt and nickel from shredded cathode material while minimising secondary waste streams. The approach points to lower‑impact recycling flowsheets that could reduce reliance on primary ore for battery metals and change leach chemistry assumptions in future plant design.

Rio Tinto’s copper output rose 5% in Q4 2025 as a 57% year-on-year surge from the Oyu Tolgoi underground expansion in Mongolia more than offset a 10% production fall at Chile’s Escondida from lower grades and reduced concentrator throughput. The stronger copper performance, which now delivers about a quarter of group half-year profit, forms the backdrop to live takeover talks with Glencore ahead of a 5 February “put up or shut up” deadline, with options including a coal carve-out into a separately listed Australian vehicle. Pilbara iron ore shipments hit a quarterly record 91.3 Mt, Simandou exports commenced with 5–10 Mt targeted for 2026, while aluminium output rose 2%, lithium set a new production record and titanium volumes fell 6% as divestment plans advance.

Liberty Gold’s past-producing Black Pine oxide gold project in southeastern Idaho has been accepted into the US FAST-41 “covered project” programme, giving it a federal permitting timetable, project advisor and public dashboard schedule to be set within 60 days. The brownfield, drive-in/drive-out operation near the Utah border hosts 402.6 million tonnes indicated at 0.32 g/t Au (4.16 Moz) plus 97.7 million tonnes inferred at 0.23 g/t Au (0.71 Moz), with a 2024 PFS outlining 2.2 Moz over 17 years at $1,380/oz AISC and $327 million initial capex. Using $2,000/oz gold and a 5% discount rate, the study shows a post-tax NPV of $550 million and 32% IRR, with feasibility-level engineering and environmental baseline work already under way.

Gold surged to a record $4,887/oz on Wednesday, its first break above $4,800 and capping a 75% 12‑month gain driven by geopolitical tensions over Greenland, threats of US tariffs on eight European nations, and a meltdown in Japanese government debt that has hammered long-dated Treasuries and the dollar. Central bank demand remains strong, with the National Bank of Poland approving another 150 tonnes of purchases and Bolivia resuming buying under December 2025 reserve rules, while Goldman Sachs maintains a $4,900/oz base‑case target. Silver, despite a 140% rise in 2025 and a fresh record of $95.89/oz on Tuesday, slipped over 1%, with ANZ warning of higher volatility as prices push towards three digits.

Chile’s president-elect José Antonio Kast has scrapped a standalone mining ministry, folding it into the economy portfolio and appointing agronomist Daniel Man as dual Minister of Economy and Mining, reversing plans to name ex‑BHP and Los Andes Copper CEO Patricio Montt. Los Andes Copper (CVE: LA) shares initially jumped 21.79% in after-hours trading on the TSX before sliding 16.07% the next day, leaving the stock 7.7% down at $15.74 and valuing the company at about C$473 million. Industry groups warn the dual mandate risks sidelining Chile’s largest industrial activity just as the new minister must unblock an estimated $105 billion in delayed mining investments and permitting reforms.

Trump’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has overhauled Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act regulations to merge the two-step exploration licence and commercial recovery permit into a single, shorter review, potentially halving permitting times for polymetallic nodule projects in US and international waters. The Metals Company has already applied under the Trump-era framework for exploration over 199,895 sq. km and a 25,160 sq. km commercial recovery area in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, while Impossible Metals is pursuing AI-guided AUV nodule collection off American Samoa and in Bahraini waters. The move raises legal and environmental uncertainty because the US has not ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea or the International Seabed Authority regime governing mining beyond national jurisdiction.

Validation test work at Fortune Minerals’ NICO project in Canada’s Northwest Territories has confirmed production of battery grade cobalt sulphate heptahydrate using an optimised, simplified hydrometallurgical flowsheet with good metal recoveries, aimed at curbing capital and operating cost escalation. The planned development combines an open pit and underground mine plus concentrator feeding a dedicated refinery in Alberta to produce cobalt sulphate, bismuth ingots and copper cement, underpinned by 1.1 million in-situ oz of gold. Funding includes C$7.5 million from Natural Resources Canada and US$6.38 million from the US Department of Defense.

A commuter train derailed in Gelida, near Barcelona, on 20 January after striking a collapsed retaining wall that had fallen onto the track, killing the driver and injuring 37 passengers. The incident, Spain’s second fatal rail accident in a week, occurred on a section of line with trackside earth-retaining structures, raising immediate questions over wall design, drainage, inspection frequency and slope stability under recent weather conditions. For civil and geotechnical engineers, failure mode identification and rapid condition assessment of similar retaining systems on active corridors will be a priority.

Construction of three cut-and-cover precast “green tunnels” on HS2’s central section at Wendover is being sequenced so delivery teams can copy and refine methods from earlier drives, cutting programme risk and improving safety. Standardised precast portal units and repeatable temporary works details are being reused across the tunnels, allowing faster installation cycles, tighter quality control on waterproofing and backfill, and more predictable ground-structure interaction. Lessons on logistics, lifting operations and working within narrow rural corridors are being transferred between sites to reduce plant clashes and temporary land-take.

European governments are being urged by an independent climate think‑tank to classify parts of North Sea offshore wind infrastructure as defence assets and fund them from expanded military budgets. The proposal, timed ahead of the North Seas Summit, centres on using defence spending to harden subsea power cables, offshore substations and grid interconnectors against sabotage and hybrid threats. For civil and marine engineers, this signals potential new design criteria for critical energy structures, including higher physical protection standards, redundancy in export cables and closer integration with naval surveillance systems.

David Cormack has begun a two-year tenure as Chair of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA) Board from 1 January 2026, succeeding former Chair Oliver Auston. Cormack previously served two years as Vice Chair and sat on LEEA’s Technical Committee, giving him direct influence over standards and guidance for cranes, hoists and lifting accessories widely used in mining and heavy civil projects. His appointment signals continuity in technical governance for inspection, certification and safe lifting practice across global operations.

JCB has secured a US$205m contract to supply the US Marine Corps with 535 militarised JCB 437HT wheeled loaders under the TRAM (Tractor, Rubber Tired, Articulated-Steering Multi-Purpose) vehicle programme, with test units due this year and full production from 2027. The deal follows a US$45m order for militarised 4CX backhoe loaders and a US$39m contract for Teleskid-based multi terrain loaders agreed earlier in 2024. For civil and military engineers, the repeat orders signal long-term fleet commonality and parts support for JCB heavy equipment in expeditionary earthmoving roles.

Bristol City Leap, a joint venture between Bristol City Council and Ameresco, has launched a £25m retrofit programme to bring social housing in Henbury, Brentry, Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston up to at least EPC band C by March 2028. Works include external and cavity wall insulation, loft, roof and floor insulation, upgraded glazing and external doors, solar PV, energy‑efficient heat pumps, enhanced ventilation and low‑energy lighting. Funded through the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and managed by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, the scheme will test an area‑based delivery model at city scale.