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Deep-sea miner The Metals Company posted a 2025 net loss of $319.8 million and a Q4 loss of $40.4 million, driven by a $131 million increase in NORI royalty liability and a $38 million one-off charge from revised sponsorship agreements, even as cash stood at $117.6 million. The company is pursuing a 12‑million‑tonne‑per‑year polymetallic nodule processing and refining plant on a 1,466‑acre site at the Port of Brownsville, Texas, and integrating AI‑driven process controls with partner Mariana Minerals. NOAA has deemed TMC’s consolidated deep‑seabed mining application in substantial compliance, covering about 65,000 km² in the Clarion Clipperton Zone with an estimated 619 million tonnes of wet nodules, while critics argue its prefeasibility economics rely improperly on resources as well as reserves.

AngloGold Ashanti has completed a pre-feasibility study for its Arthur project in Nevada’s Beatty district, confirming 4.9 million oz of gold reserves across the Silicon and Merlin deposits and outlining an initial nine-year mine life with average output of 500,000 oz/y. More than 95% of mineralisation is oxide, suited to bulk mining and conventional processing, with all-in sustaining costs estimated at $954/oz and initial capex at $3.6 billion. Using a $1,950/oz base case, AngloGold reports after-tax NPV (5%) rising from $1.7 billion at $2,715/oz to $3.4 billion at $3,500/oz, with feasibility work starting June alongside environmental and hydrological baseline studies.

Gold prices jumped up to 3% to more than US$4,550/oz on Friday, heading for their first weekly gain since the Iran conflict began, after weeks of war-driven volatility and earlier price weakness. During his first Cabinet meeting since the US strike on Iran over three weeks ago, President Donald Trump called himself “a gold person” and backed the metal as “real stuff” that “you can’t imitate”, reinforcing bullion’s safe-haven narrative. A federal arts commission has also approved a 24‑karat commemorative coin design bearing Trump’s face for the US 250th anniversary.

United Infrastructure has begun an £11m cathodic protection upgrade at National Gas’s Bacton Gas Terminal in North Norfolk, targeting buried steel pipelines and other soil- and water-submerged assets, with completion due in early 2028. Works are being delivered on a live upper-tier COMAH site, demanding detailed phasing, specialist corrosion engineering and stringent safety controls to maintain terminal operations. A Project Environmental Management Plan aligned with ISO 14001 is in place, signalling tighter asset integrity management similar to United’s previous programmes at St Fergus gas terminal.

WSP has secured a place on Northern Powergrid’s new multi‑lot professional engineering services framework, covering an electricity distribution network serving about eight million people across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire. The consultancy will provide system studies and planning, network design and asset management, digital engineering, and project management, engineering and commissioning support to maintain, upgrade and future‑proof the distribution assets. The award extends a 27‑year client relationship and signals continued grid investment that will interest civil, electrical and geotechnical teams working on substation, cable route and foundation works.

Edinburgh’s City of Edinburgh Council has given ‘minded to approve’ consent for Vivere Extra Care Group’s £25m, 2.2-acre retirement village at the former Lansdowne House / Lower School Campus site on Coltbridge Terrace, delivering 48 extra care homes with communal lounges, parking and gardens. The scheme will incorporate what is described as Scotland’s first Zero Carbon 5G heat network on the brownfield plot, alongside refurbishment of the 1875, TB McFadzen-designed, listed Victorian villa, lodge and stables. New-build elements will replace later additions and are being designed to match the original Victorian character.

Balfour Beatty Vinci is preparing to launch the 107‑metre, 1,250‑tonne west deck of the HS2 M6 South viaduct near Chelmsley Wood, sliding it 102 metres over the M6 junction 4 southbound slip road using a giant hydraulic jack onto concrete piers. The west deck, assembled in four smaller sections because of space constraints, staggered abutments and a curved loop road, will run parallel to the existing 320‑metre east deck installed in three stages under live traffic. Installation is planned in four phases from April to November 2026, with only the J4 southbound exit requiring closure.

Construction consultant Gleeds has confirmed that current chief operating officer David Johnson, a 40‑year veteran of the firm, will become chief executive on 6 April 2026, succeeding Graham Harle, who moves to a non‑executive director role on the board. UK managing director Brian McArdle will step up to chief operating officer, while Andy Ellis, now global head of energy, will become UK managing director. The reshuffle at the 150‑year‑old consultancy signals continuity of leadership for major cost, programme and project management commissions across UK and international infrastructure.

Road renewals on England’s 4,500‑mile strategic road network will receive £8.4bn under the Department for Transport’s £27bn third roads investment strategy (RIS3), which allocates £24.9bn to operate, maintain, renew and enhance the network over the next five years. The package includes £1.65bn for publicly funded works on the Lower Thames Crossing and £402m ringfenced for inward investment projects, with schemes now mapped in a new interactive planning tool. Major enhancements starting in RIS3 include dualling remaining A66 Northern Trans‑Pennine sections plus junction upgrades at Penrith and Scotch Corner, A38 Derby junctions, the A46 Newark bypass, the M54–M6 link road and the M60/M62/M66 Simister Island interchange.

Miller Homes reported a record 2025 after acquiring St Modwen Homes for a reported £215m, with completions up 29% to 4,931 units and turnover rising 34% to £1.425bn. Pre-tax profit jumped 75% to £124.1m and adjusted operating profit reached £219m, supported by an expanded consented landbank of 16,329 plots under Apollo Global Management ownership. The enlarged portfolio, now including a second private brand and four routes to market, underpins a target of 7,000 completions a year, with digital sales data currently showing no demand impact from Middle East tensions.

Ministers have announced a Whitehall drive to cut “overlapping consultations” and “outdated regulations” on the same day the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government launched two further consultations, bringing its total to 15 live exercises. One nine‑week consultation, closing 28 May, proposes redefining Category A building control for higher‑risk buildings (over 18 m/seven storeys) so many in‑flat works and small, low‑complexity communal works move to the simpler Category B route. A second 12‑week consultation, closing 18 June, proposes mandatory certification for fire risk assessors, ending routine self‑assessment by building owners and landlords.

The retirement of Bentley’s gINT platform is forcing geotechnical teams to rethink borehole, lab and in situ data workflows built over decades around .gpj databases and log templates. Firms now face decisions on migrating legacy projects, revalidating correlations and AGS/CSV exports, and integrating cloud-based systems with GIS, BIM and common data environments such as ProjectWise. For practitioners, the key technical risk is loss of data integrity and traceability during conversion, especially where historic projects mix imperial/metric units, custom fields and non-standard symbol libraries.

EACON’s ORCASTRA® autonomous haulage system has been deployed on 120 Tonly TLE138 battery-electric wide body trucks, each with a 90 t payload, at the Zhundong Open-Pit Coal Mine in northwest China, forming one of the largest single-site battery-electric haulage fleets globally. The fleet-scale autonomy on BEVs targets lower diesel-related ventilation demand and reduced haul unit operating costs on the mine’s large waste and coal benches. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, consistent autonomous haul patterns on wide body trucks will influence ramp geometry, dump stability, and traffic management design.

Antofagasta PLC is tying copper growth to innovation, reporting in its FY2025 results that fleet autonomy has been deployed at the Centinela mine since 2021 and is now central to scaling operations. The company frames autonomy as a way to manage increasingly complex open-pit operations, with larger truck fleets and more intricate dispatch requirements driving demand for digital control. For mine planners and operations teams, this signals continued investment in autonomous haulage, data-driven fleet management and process optimisation across Antofagasta’s Chilean assets.

Wiltshire Council has appointed MJ Church as contractor for the £31M upgrade of M4 Junction 17, aimed at easing current congestion and accommodating forecast traffic growth on the Swindon–Chippenham–Malmesbury corridor. The next phase moves the scheme from planning into detailed design and construction preparation, with works expected to focus on increasing junction capacity and improving traffic flow on the A350 and B4122 approaches. For civil and highways engineers, the project signals forthcoming demand for pavement strengthening, junction geometry redesign and updated drainage to cope with higher flows.

Heathrow Airport is seeking “real-time” expert scrutiny from the Civil Aviation Authority and independent specialists on its proposed £33bn expansion, aiming to avoid cost escalation and schedule slippage seen on HS2. The programme includes a third runway, terminal upgrades and associated surface access works, with early-stage assurance focused on phasing, constructability around live operations and interfaces with the M25 and rail links. For designers and contractors, this signals tighter cost control, more iterative design reviews and closer regulatory oversight of geotechnical risk and airfield pavement works.

Government plans to revoke planning consent for dualling the A47 and to abandon proposed upgrades to the A10 have been condemned as “retrograde” and “baffling” by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayor Paul Bristow. The A47 scheme would have converted key single-carriageway sections to dual two-lane standard, while A10 works were expected to address chronic congestion and safety issues on the Ely–Cambridge corridor. Bristow warns the cancellations will lock in capacity constraints on two of the region’s primary strategic routes, complicating long-term transport and development planning.

Copper’s 16% price slide from January’s record, with May futures now around $12,000/t, is being called “overpriced, oversupplied and over the pond” by Macquarie, which cites more than 1 Mt of visible inventory growth since early 2025 and a 602,000 t market surplus last year. LME stocks are at six‑year highs, COMEX inventories are at record levels, and Macquarie estimates a further 480,000 t sitting off‑exchange in the US, drawn by CME‑LME arbitrage that previously pushed COMEX premiums above $2,000/t. The bank expects continued volatility driven mainly by investor positioning, Iran‑related geopolitics and uncertainty over a potential US Section 232 decision on copper imports by 30 June 2026, rather than by physical tightness.

Lynas Rare Earths has signed an agreement with South Korea’s LS Eco Energy to secure a long-term pathway for separated rare earth oxides from Lynas’ Mt Weld mine and processing hubs. The deal targets neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) and other magnet metals for LS Eco Energy’s planned downstream facilities in South Korea, integrating Lynas’ upstream concentration and cracking-leaching capacity with Korean alloy and magnet manufacturing. For mining and processing engineers, the partnership signals tighter alignment of mine output specifications with end-user magnet-grade quality and traceable non-Chinese supply chains.

PNG Expo 2026 in Port Moresby is planning an expanded floorplan and multi-stream conference programme to attract miners, contractors and OEMs across Papua New Guinea’s gold, copper and LNG sectors. Organiser Prime Creative Media is targeting larger equipment displays, including surface and underground fleets, processing plant technologies and mine services, with strong early exhibitor interest reported. For geotechnical and civil teams, the event is positioned as a regional hub to source pit slope monitoring systems, ground support products and infrastructure solutions for remote, high-rainfall sites.

The Minerals Council of Australia has proposed a $44 billion plan to build an east–west and north–south infrastructure axis across northern Australia, targeting rail, port and energy corridors to open access to remote mineral provinces. The concept links the North West Minerals Province in Queensland, the Beetaloo and McArthur basins in the Northern Territory, and the Kimberley and Pilbara in Western Australia, with integrated bulk freight and high-capacity road upgrades. For miners and civil contractors, the plan signals potential demand for heavy-haul rail formation, deep-water export terminals and grid-strengthening transmission lines.

Aeris Resources has completed the $14.5 million divestment of its North Queensland copper assets, including the Jaguar and Mt Colin operations, to Dingo Minerals, freeing capital to focus on its Tritton and Cracow mines. The deal comprises cash, a deferred payment and a 1.25 per cent net smelter return royalty, giving Aeris ongoing exposure to future copper production without sustaining capital obligations. Aeris is now partnering with Constellation Mining Services to optimise underground development, drilling and mine planning across its remaining assets.

Australia is emerging as a “global resource rising star”, with International Energy Agency executive director Fatih Birol pointing to its large reserves of lithium, nickel and rare earths plus mature iron ore and coal supply chains as key leverage in an electrified energy system. Birol flagged that Australia’s existing export infrastructure, established ESG frameworks and experience supplying over 50 per cent of global seaborne iron ore give it a strategic edge as EV and grid-scale battery demand accelerates. For miners, the message is to fast-track critical minerals projects and downstream processing while maintaining cost competitiveness against Latin American and African producers.

Codelco’s Andina Division and Anglo American’s Los Bronces copper operation have secured all required free-competition approvals for their Joint Mining Plan, including clearance from China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). The agreement, originally signed in September 2025, enables coordinated long-term planning of adjacent orebodies in central Chile, with potential for shared infrastructure and optimised pit and underground sequencing. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, the sign-off removes a key regulatory constraint on integrated slope design, haulage layouts and tailings strategy across the combined footprint.