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The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, now fully pricing imports at roughly €90/t CO2, could give Canadian nickel a cost edge if nickel is added in a future CBAM expansion expected to be considered around 2028. Canada Nickel’s Crawford sulphide project near Timmins is targeting 30,000 t/y of nickel initially, ramping to 50,000 t/y after 2028, with 60–70% destined for export, positioning it for potential EU demand. Skarn Associates’ data cited by the Mining Association of Canada show Canadian nickel among the lowest-carbon globally, contrasting sharply with coal-powered Indonesian production.

Gold jumped 2.6% to a record $4,625.34/oz and silver surged 7.2% to $85.73/oz as investors shifted into safe-haven metals amid escalating political pressure on the US Federal Reserve, including a grand jury subpoena for chair Jerome Powell. Gold gained 65% and silver 140% in 2025, with macro strategists such as Nour Al Ali calling a move towards $5,000/oz in early 2026 “highly plausible” as US rates fall and geopolitical risks rise. BMI and Julius Baer flag a continuing silver market deficit in 2026, driven by higher investment demand, industrial consumption and speculative flows from China.

Case Construction Equipment has appointed newly formed EMH Plant as its authorised dealer for the Northeast and North Yorkshire, extending Case’s proximity-based service strategy in a region dominated by major schemes such as Teesworks. EMH Plant, incorporated in October 2024 and led by former Molson sales manager Ian Phillips, is ultimately owned by TCC Plant co-directors Chester Corney and Tom Carr, whose hire business posted £9.8m pre-tax profit on £24.5m turnover to 31 March 2024. Contractors can expect emphasis on fast parts supply, strong stock availability and full life-cycle support for Case machines.

Extensive remediation and enabling works at Clowes Developments’ 31‑acre Harrier Park site off the M1 in Hucknall are more than 90% complete, preparing up to 500,000 sq ft of industrial and warehouse space on the former Harrier jump jet and Rolls‑Royce Merlin engine works. TanRo has installed a 134‑metre retaining wall on Plot 1 using 64 steel columns and 127 concrete infill panels, completed major storm drainage and high‑voltage diversion ducting, and formed the main access road plateau. On Plot 2, storm drainage diversion, a southern screening bund to Plot 2D and bulk earthworks to near‑final plateau levels position the site for warehouse construction from next month.

Premier Technical Services Group (PTSG) has acquired Scottish-based Earth Tech LPS Ltd, a 25-year-old lightning protection testing and inspection specialist with long-term maintenance contracts across public sector estates, infrastructure and commercial property. Earth Tech LPS will be folded into PTSG’s Electrical Services division under managing director Mark Mitchell, with operational leadership by director Craig Finney, who has over 15 years’ experience in lightning protection T&I. The deal increases PTSG’s engineer density and service coverage in Scotland, supporting more frequent statutory inspections and streamlined compliance across dispersed asset portfolios.

Weston Homes has promoted group development director Steve Hatton to its group board and put him in charge of Weston Partnerships, a new division already holding a pipeline of more than 1,000 build-to-rent, affordable, student, co-living and later living units across Bracknell, Barking and Cambridge. Former head of land Abbie Simpson becomes land & partnerships director, while ex-head of design Daniel Murray steps up to planning & design director. The strengthened leadership is intended to drive delivery of large schemes such as Abbey Quay and accelerate third-party partnership developments.

Demolition and land remediation contractor John F Hunt Group reported 8% turnover growth to £193.3m for the year to 31 March 2025, but operating profit fell to £4.9m and pre-tax profit slumped to £101,000 after a £5.1m exceptional hit from the collapse of a major London hotel developer client. Core contracting arm John F Hunt Ltd lifted turnover to £102.4m and pre-tax profit to £1.6m before the write-down, while regeneration turnover rose to £83.5m but operating profit dropped to £3.3m. Finance director Ian Saville warned turnover will fall this year due to delays on several large projects, despite £29.7m net cash and the group’s transition to an employee ownership trust with £5.56m contributed.

Administrators have been appointed to AIM-listed Versarien, developer of the Cementene graphene admixture and partner in HS2 trials of graphene‑reinforced 3D‑printed concrete with the Skanska Costain Strabag JV. The company, which helped Banagher Precast Concrete cut ordinary Portland cement content by 20% in a standard precast mix and signed a materials R&D agreement with Balfour Beatty, entered administration on 6 January 2026. Persistent losses of £4.3m on £2.4m revenue in the latest year and failed investment and M&A efforts triggered the move, with Leonard Curtis now seeking buyers for the business and assets.

Skanska and Network Rail have installed a new 4,200‑tonne, 130‑metre Clifton railway bridge over the M6 near Penrith using four Mammoet self‑propelled modular trailers with more than 600 wheels, as part of a £60m upgrade to the West Coast Main Line. The operation required two planned 60‑hour full closures of the M6 between junctions 39 and 40, but the motorway reopened 13 hours early despite sub‑zero conditions. Rail remains shut between Oxenholme and Carlisle until 05:00 on Thursday while new track, overhead line equipment and signalling are reinstated over the structure.

Epiroc has rolled out new Deep Automation capabilities, developed and tested on autonomous truck fleets at Agnico Eagle’s Odyssey underground mine in Canada, to manage haulage across complex, multi-level ramp systems. The platform now provides true real-time 3D visibility of drives, intersections and loading points, improving traffic coordination, route planning and interaction between manned and unmanned equipment. For mine planners and engineers, this enables denser truck traffic on shared declines and more precise control of bottlenecks without adding new haulage infrastructure.

Strategic fleet management at Cementation Africa is being used to control shaft sinking and underground development schedules by matching a dedicated fleet of raiseborers, LHDs and utility vehicles to project-specific demands. Manager Engineering Arthur Adams says the contractor keeps key assets in-house, supported by its own engineering workshops and component rebuild capability, while selectively hiring specialist equipment to avoid overcapitalisation. The approach is aimed at shortening mobilisation times between deep-level shaft projects, improving equipment availability, and tightening cost control on high-intensity sinking campaigns.

Thiess has secured a six‑year contract extension with MACH Energy at the Mount Pleasant Operation in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, taking its engagement through to the end of 2031 with an expanded mining services scope. The deal locks in continuity of overburden removal and coal mining operations at this large truck‑shovel open‑cut site, where Thiess already provides drill and blast, load and haul, and mine planning. For geotechnical and operations teams, the longer horizon supports ongoing pit wall monitoring, slope design refinement and equipment fleet planning on a multi‑year basis.

EACON Mining Technology has begun fully autonomous testing of a retrofitted Komatsu HD1500 haul truck operating without a safety driver at Norton Gold Fields’ Mulgarrie open-pit mine in Western Australia. The tri-partite project with Thiess and Norton Gold involves converting an existing mechanical-drive fleet rather than deploying factory-built autonomous trucks, targeting lower capex and faster deployment on brownfield haul roads. Engineers will be watching interaction with manned fleets, traffic management rules, and system performance under variable pit geometries and blast conditions.

Weir is expanding its West African mining footprint with locally based service centres and skills programmes to support higher plant availability and more efficient comminution circuits. Regional teams are being trained to specify, install and maintain Weir technologies such as Warman slurry pumps and Cavex hydrocyclones, reducing reliance on fly‑in specialists and shortening shutdown durations. For mine operators, the localised approach aims to cut lifecycle costs on critical wear components and improve response times for process optimisation and debottlenecking.

Hydraulic fracturing is being deployed in deep hard-rock metal mines to precondition highly stressed, brittle rock masses and manage hazards such as rock bursts, violent spalling and blocky cave propagation around large excavations. Operations are using multi-stage HF in long blastholes and dedicated boreholes to weaken ore columns, improve caveability and reduce unplanned dilution, with fracture geometry controlled by in-situ stress orientation and rock fabric. Inflatable packers are central to field practice, isolating specific intervals, enabling controlled pressure build-up, and allowing repeated treatments in the same borehole without grout-based sealing.

Ultra‑rapid public EV chargers in the UK expanded 41% year‑on‑year in 2025, driving an overall 20% increase in public chargepoints and shifting provision towards high‑power units suitable for long‑distance motorway and trunk‑road corridors. Investment is concentrating on clustered charging hubs, rather than dispersed single units, to handle higher peak loads and faster dwell times in both inter‑urban and dense urban locations. For civil and electrical engineers, this points to growing demand for upgraded grid connections, reinforced pavements, and bay layouts optimised for simultaneous high‑power charging.

Gold ended 2025 at record levels after setting 53 all‑time price highs through the year, signalling sustained investor demand amid persistent inflation and geopolitical risk. Analysts cited strong central bank buying, robust over-the-counter trading in London and COMEX futures positioning as key drivers, with spot prices repeatedly breaking through previous resistance bands. For miners, the extended bull run is supporting higher cut-off grades, accelerated feasibility work on marginal orebodies, and renewed financing appetite for greenfield gold projects.

Merger talks between Rio Tinto and Glencore are reported to be closer than ever, with both majors exploring potential corporate combinations that would create one of the world’s largest diversified miners across iron ore, copper, aluminium, coal and trading. Any deal would integrate Rio’s Pilbara iron ore system and Oyu Tolgoi copper operation with Glencore’s global copper, zinc and coal portfolio and its dominant commodity marketing arm. For engineers and contractors, a combined group could rationalise capital spend, consolidate project pipelines and reshape procurement and offtake terms across multiple regions.

Brightstar Resources has reported positive drilling results and a modest mineral resource estimate (MRE) increase at its Lord Byron gold deposit in Western Australia, strengthening confidence in extending mine life within the Laverton gold project. The updated MRE, derived from recent reverse circulation and diamond drilling, refines grade continuity and mineralisation geometry around existing pit shells, improving pit optimisation and potential ore reserve conversion. For mine planners and geotechs, the tighter model supports more reliable slope design, scheduling, and cutback decisions in a mature brownfields setting.

Timken solid-block housed units, promoted in Australia by Motion, target crushers, conveyors and vibrating screens operating in high-shock, high-contamination mining environments where conventional split housings and standard deep-groove bearings often fail prematurely. The factory-assembled units combine a one-piece cast steel housing with triple-lip or labyrinth seals and full-contact bearing inserts, designed to tolerate heavy misalignment, shaft deflection and poor lubrication conditions typical of hard-rock and bulk-handling plants. For maintenance teams, the drop-in design and sealed-for-life options aim to cut unplanned downtime and reduce the frequency of relubrication in remote sites.

Craig Pedley’s 40‑year mining career is profiled from his start as a mechanical apprentice through to senior leadership roles shaping major Australian iron ore and coal operations. He is credited with driving large‑scale materials handling upgrades, including high‑capacity overland conveyor systems and optimised crusher‑to‑rail load‑out flows, as well as mentoring multiple generations of maintenance and reliability engineers. For practitioners, his trajectory illustrates how deep site-based experience can inform whole‑of‑operation design decisions on availability, maintainability and brownfield expansion.

Ausenco is mobilising a 50-strong multidisciplinary team in January to implement the Jervois nickel and cobalt refinery project in São Paulo, focusing on civil engineering consulting, electromechanical assembly, and project controls. Specialists in health and safety, quality, and project management will support both site works and office-based design and coordination. For engineers, the move signals upcoming demand for detailed brownfield integration, constructability reviews, and upgraded process infrastructure at an existing hydrometallurgical facility.

Meta has signed nuclear power deals with Vistra, TerraPower and Oklo for up to 6.6 GW of capacity by 2035 to run its US data centres and the Prometheus AI supercluster in Ohio, adding to a 20‑year, 1.12 GW offtake from Constellation’s Clinton plant. In parallel, the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust has bought 300,000 lb of U₃O₈ in a week, lifting holdings to about 75.2 million lb worth US$6.17 billion, as spot prices hover around US$82/lb. For miners and project developers, this combination of long‑term nuclear PPAs and aggressive physical uranium accumulation signals firmer demand visibility despite persistent SMR cost and schedule risk.

Derrick Corporation has opened its Derrick Experience Center (DEX Center) in January 2026 to mark its 75th anniversary, creating a dedicated test hub for advanced fine screening technology. The “first-of-its-kind” facility is designed for current and prospective customers to run full-scale trials on Derrick high-frequency screens and Polyweb® urethane panels under controlled conditions, rather than relying solely on on-site pilots. The centre is intended to shorten test campaigns, de-risk screen selection, and optimise cut size and throughput for fine coal, iron ore, base metals and industrial minerals circuits.