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Lithium Argentina’s Cauchari-Olaroz brine operation in Jujuy hit 2025 guidance with about 34,100 tonnes of lithium carbonate, running at 97% of nameplate in Q4 and cutting cash operating costs below $6,000/t, down from $6,285/t in Q3. The $1 billion first-stage JV with Ganfeng (47%), Lithium Argentina (45%) and JEMSE (8.5%) is seeking environmental and RIGI approvals to add 45,000 t/y capacity and is evaluating direct lithium extraction to boost recoveries and reduce water use. A separate PPG salar project in Salta targets 50,000 t/y in phase one with about $1.1 billion initial capex.

Nova Minerals has played down a Financial Times report that it agreed to buy over 100 tonnes of Pakistani antimony concentrates for about $2 million in early 2026, saying talks with a local partner were only “preliminary” and “exploratory”. The clarification came as Nova’s shares rose more than 6% in New York, valuing the company at about $396 million, while it pushes ahead with a feasibility study on its Estelle gold project in Alaska, a 500 km² claim block in the Tintina Gold Belt. Estelle currently hosts nearly 10 million oz. of gold across four large, near-surface intrusion-related deposits along a 35 km corridor, with associated antimony mineralisation underpinning plans for an Alaska-based mining and refining hub for military‑grade antimony trisulphide backed by $43.4 million in US Defense Production Act funding.

From Chile’s 1971 copper nationalisation under Salvador Allende and creation of Codelco to the 2026 US “Operation Absolute Resolve” that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, control of copper and oil has repeatedly triggered coups, sanctions and direct military intervention. Venezuela’s mining output has collapsed despite large reserves, with official gold production falling from 5.95 tonnes in 1999 to about 30 kg in 2023, iron ore from 14.1 Mt to 2.5 Mt, and bauxite from over 4 Mt to roughly 250,000 t. GEM’s Juan Ignacio Guzmán sees near-term opportunity in rehabilitating idle mines and plants within one to three years, contingent on power, infrastructure, sanctions relief and legal stability.

Power tool manufacturer Milwaukee Tools has opened a 13,250-square-foot UK Experience Centre at Westcott Venture Park in Aylesbury under a 10-year lease, offering trade users extended access to its full cordless and corded product range. The facility combines indoor training bays with outdoor testing areas so contractors can trial drills, breakers and saws under realistic site-like conditions before committing to fleet purchases. For site managers and procurement teams, this enables more informed tool selection, potentially reducing downtime, misuse and compatibility issues across large projects.

Bentley Systems has acquired Talon Aerolytics and the drone-data and AI assets of Pointivo Technology to expand its Bentley Asset Analytics portfolio, which already includes OpenTower iQ for telecom towers and Blyncsy for road networks. Talon brings an inspection and asset digitisation platform used across wireless telecom, broadband and electric utilities, combining workflow automation, digital twins and AI for recurring tower and line inspections. Pointivo adds patented AI-driven inventory and damage detection, advanced point-cloud processing, automated measurement and geolocated drone capture, aimed at continuous condition assessment for 5G roll-outs and grid modernisation.

Seddon has promoted Mark Walker to managing director of Seddon Housing Partnerships after seven years with the firm, succeeding Peter Jackson, who is stepping down after almost 20 years. Walker, previously commercial director, has led major regeneration schemes including 152 replacement homes at Whitebirk and 93 social rent homes at the Shadsworth estate in Blackburn. His remit covers new-build and retrofit programmes with social housing providers across the north of England and the Midlands, with a stated focus on scheme viability, capacity support and tenant-led estate renewal.

Laing O’Rourke has appointed Wayne Davis as chief people officer, adding HR representation to its overarching group executive committee for the first time from 12 January 2026. Davis joins from Premier Technical Services Group after 18 months and previously spent five years as senior vice president for HR at Emirates, following a long career across General Electric businesses. Group chief executive Cathal O’Rourke links the move to planned organisational transformation and talent development as the contractor pursues a “new delivery paradigm” for construction.

Nottingham Forest has submitted new plans to expand the City Ground from 30,445 to about 52,000 seats, replacing last year’s approved but smaller 35,000-capacity scheme focused on rebuilding the Peter Taylor Stand. The revised project team is led by KSS Design Group, with Buro Happold, Gleeds and Savills advising, and owner Evangelos Marinakis committing “significant investment” for a “sustainable and iconic” redevelopment. For civil and structural engineers, the jump to a 52,000-seat bowl signals substantially larger crowd loading, egress, services and transport interface requirements on an already constrained riverside site.

Kier Group’s new chief executive Stuart Togwell has restructured the business from five divisions to three, creating a single Kier Infrastructure unit by merging Transportation with Natural Resources and Nuclear & Networks, and appointing current chief people officer Louisa Finlay as chief operating officer with added responsibility for digital technology. Former Laing O’Rourke leader Martin Staehr becomes group managing director for Kier Construction, while James Askew moves from interim construction lead to group commercial director overseeing procurement, pre-construction and business development. Tom Hinton joins as chief financial officer and Abi Cooke becomes chief of staff, ahead of a trading update on 20 January and interim results on 3 March.

TH White has been appointed authorised Sany Heavy Machinery UK dealer for construction machinery sales, service and parts across the West Midlands and parts of the southwest, replacing Worcester-based forklift specialist MSM DRH after five years. The move plugs Sany’s excavators and other construction machines into TH White’s existing portfolio of Manitou, Mecalac and New Holland equipment plus Palfinger cranes, giving contractors a single supplier for mixed fleets. For plant owners, the key change is access to Sany support through TH White’s established construction-focused sales and service teams.

Epiroc and Major Drilling are advancing the DiscovOre and Arrow 3S wireline core barrel system, first introduced in 2016 to boost mineral exploration drilling performance while reducing manual handling at the drill string. The system integrates a latch mechanism and overshot design that allow inner tubes to be retrieved without workers leaning over the rotating drill string, cutting exposure to dropped-object and entanglement hazards. Current development focuses on further cycle-time reductions and safer operation in deep-hole, high-angle exploration drilling.

Civmec has secured more than A$400 million in new contracts and extensions with BHP and Fortescue, converting a previously flagged pipeline of brownfield and sustaining capital opportunities into firm work. The awards, spanning structural, mechanical and piping packages as well as site maintenance, are structured around early-contractor involvement to lock in constructability and schedule before final investment decisions. For project teams, this signals continued demand for integrated fabrication–construction delivery and long-term shutdown and upgrade support on major iron ore operations in Western Australia.

Initial drilling at Saga Metals’ Radar iron-titanium-vanadium project in Labrador has defined Trapper as its strongest target, with hole R-0009 cutting 296 m from 2.5 m depth grading 39.75% Fe₂O₃, 7.46% TiO₂ and 0.25% V₂O₅, including 63 m at 44% Fe₂O₃ and 9% TiO₂. A second hole, R-0008, returned 269.36 m at 36.21% Fe₂O₃, 6.57% TiO₂ and 0.244% V₂O₅ from 3.4 m, with internal intervals up to 46.15% Fe₂O₃ and 9.2% TiO₂. Saga reports Trapper’s iron and titanium grades are 124% and 105% higher than Hawkeye’s best assays, supporting a 15,000 m programme targeting an indicated resource later in 2026.

Most mineral and metal prices are forecast by BMI, a Fitch Solutions unit, to average higher in 2026 than in 2025 as trade frictions ease and demand from net-zero sectors supports copper, aluminium, lithium, nickel and rare earths despite continued weakness in Mainland China’s property market. A key risk is potential US tariffs on refined copper, with the Commerce Secretary due to report by 30 June 2026 on a possible universal duty of 15% from 2027 and 30% from 2028. Gold is expected to stay below about $4,000/oz by late 2026 as the Fed’s rate‑cutting cycle pauses and a relatively stable US dollar index around 95–100 caps further upside.

Gamuda Engineering has secured the Sydney Metro Stations Package West as principal contractor, covering design and construction of five new underground stations at Westmead, North Strathfield, Burwood North, Five Dock and The Bays on the 24km Sydney Metro West line between Greater Parramatta and the CBD. The scope includes deep station boxes, entrances and access points, full station fit-out and integration with surrounding precincts, with Laing O’Rourke and DT Infrastructure joining as MetroVista delivery partners. Site works are scheduled to start on Monday, 5 January 2026.

Mineração Morro do Ipê (MMI) has installed 19 HÖRMANN Warnsysteme electronic sirens as an automated warning system for communities in the tailings dam impact zone. The sirens are linked to dam monitoring sensors and are configured to trigger automatically in the event of a breach, removing reliance on manual activation during fast‑developing failures. For geotechnical and emergency planners, the project illustrates integration of real‑time instrumentation with public alerting infrastructure as part of Brazilian post‑Brumadinho tailings risk management practice.

FLANDERS Electric Motor Service has signed an exclusive strategic partnership with EKU Power Drives to integrate EKU’s idle management technology into FLANDERS’ mining electrification, automation and drive solutions. EKU’s control systems, already used to cut engine idling time and fuel burn in heavy mobile equipment, will be embedded in drive and control packages for large haul trucks and auxiliary fleets. The move targets lower diesel consumption, reduced CO₂ emissions and extended engine life across both retrofit and new-build mining assets.

Copper futures on the London Metal Exchange briefly hit a record $13,020/t on Monday before easing to about $12,500/t, capping a 43% annual gain in 2025 that made copper the LME’s best-performing industrial metal since 2009. Supply fears stem from disruptions at Grasberg (Indonesia), Kamoa-Kakula (DRC) and a strike at Chile’s Mantoverde mine, with ING and Marex strategists citing years of underinvestment and speculative money driving a “topsides” bid. US tariff threats have pushed the country’s inventories to roughly half of global stocks despite under 10% of demand, leaving LME spreads in firm backwardation and China Securities forecasting a >100,000 t global shortage in 2026.

BlueScope Steel has rejected as “unlikely to be acceptable” a A$13.15 billion (A$30 per share) takeover proposal from a consortium led by Kerry Stokes-backed SGH and US-based Steel Dynamics, despite the 27% premium to its pre-bid share price. The company disclosed it had already turned down three unsolicited approaches in late 2024 and early 2025, including Steel Dynamics-led bids at A$27.50 and A$29.00 per share focused on its North American operations. BlueScope, which runs the Port Kembla steelworks and almost 100 Australian sites generating A$6.95 billion in local sales, is also in talks with Nippon Steel and Posco over a potential acquisition of the Whyalla steelworks.

Sprott Physical Uranium Trust has started 2026 by buying 100,000 lb of U₃O₈, lifting its holdings to about 74.9 million lb with a market value of US$6.13 billion, after purchasing 8.67 million lb in 2025 versus 3.06 million lb in 2024. Spot uranium is trading around US$82/lb, up 12% over 2025, while World Nuclear Association data show annual demand already exceeds mine output by 50–60 million lb and could reach 391 million lb by 2040. Ontario–New York nuclear cooperation and AI-driven data centre loads signal sustained pressure on fuel supply and long-term contracting.

Gold jumped nearly 3% on Monday after the US attack on Venezuela and capture of President Nicolás Maduro, with spot prices reaching a one-week high of $4,455.42/oz and US futures touching $4,480/oz, about $100 below late‑2025 records. Analysts at OCBC, Natixis and Heraeus note the move is driven by safe‑haven flows layered onto existing concerns over geopolitics, energy supply and Fed easing, with Goldman Sachs’ base case targeting $4,900/oz. For miners and project financiers, the spike reinforces gold’s sensitivity to short‑term geopolitical shocks despite historically limited long‑run price effects.

Largo has secured a binding term sheet to sell 4.5 million tonnes of iron ore calcine stockpiled over 11 years at its Maracás Menchen vanadium mine in Bahia, Brazil, for cash proceeds of $56 million under a multi-year contract. The deal would monetise iron ore and titanium byproduct inventories without altering Largo’s core vanadium production strategy at one of the world’s highest-grade vanadium resources, which began output in 2014 and has a >30-year mine life. Largo’s TSX share price rose up to 7.1% to C$1.55, valuing the company at C$126.6 million.

Construction of HS2’s Delta junction advanced over Christmas with Balfour Beatty Vinci completing two parallel Water Orton viaduct spans across the live Birmingham–Peterborough railway during a five-day blockade. The single‑track precast segmental viaducts will run for about 1.4km, supported on 32 in‑situ concrete piers up to 20m high, carrying 360km/h mainline and 200km/h approach tracks over two railways, the A446, the River Tame and the M42. Segments are installed by a balanced cantilever method using a 22m mast and 14m swivel crane, with 2,742 units cast at Lea Marston.

The UK Trade Remedies Authority has confirmed anti-dumping tariffs on Chinese-built excavators will stand, rejecting appeals from LiuGong and Caterpillar over its May 2025 decision. LiuGong sought to exclude its battery-electric excavators from the product definition, while Caterpillar challenged the calculation of its individual dumping and injury margins and the causal link assessment. Tariffs, introduced following a JCB complaint, remain at 18.81% for one sampled exporter and up to 40.08% residual, affecting UK pricing and procurement of Chinese excavators across fleet renewals.