Geomechanics.io

CONEXPO-CON/AGG and The Utility Expo have formed a multi-year partnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to deliver construction-specific mental health education across North American worksites. The programme will embed AFSP’s evidence-based training modules on suicide risk, peer intervention and crisis response into toolbox talks, supervisor training and safety briefings. For contractors and asset owners, this signals growing expectation that mental health risk will be managed with the same structure and documentation as physical site safety.

Arup spent almost £20M on redundancies in the year to 31 March 2025 while reporting a marginal fall in operating profit, signalling a significant internal restructuring. The consultancy is reallocating resources towards higher‑growth sectors, likely favouring complex infrastructure, energy transition and advanced buildings work over lower‑margin, commoditised design services. Contractors and clients can expect leaner Arup teams, more selective bidding and a stronger focus on technically demanding, higher‑fee geotechnical and civil engineering commissions.

HS2 contractors have completed the final slide of a 4,600t viaduct section across the M6, moving the structure into position without a full carriageway closure in what they describe as a UK first. The operation used incremental launching techniques to shift the preassembled deck over live traffic, relying on carefully sequenced night-time lane restrictions instead of total shutdowns. For future motorway-rail interfaces, the method signals wider scope to build major spans offline and slide them into place, cutting possession times and temporary works demands.

Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O’Rourke have pleaded not guilty to two alleged health and safety offences at EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear construction site, one involving a worker fatality. The cases, brought by the Office for Nuclear Regulation, relate to incidents during major civil works on the reactor complex, where heavy lifting operations, deep excavations and complex temporary works demand stringent CDM and nuclear site licence compliance. Contractors across UK megaprojects will be watching closely for any precedent on corporate liability for site safety management.

MMD Australia (West) Pty Ltd has secured a contract to supply an MMD 625 Primary Sizer and an MMD 500 Secondary Sizer to Element 25’s Butcherbird Expansion (BBX) project in the Pilbara, Western Australia. The sizers will be integrated into the Butcherbird Manganese Mine’s upgraded processing circuit to handle higher throughputs as Element 25 ramps up manganese output. For plant and materials engineers, the move signals a shift towards higher-capacity in-pit or plant-based sizing solutions tailored to Pilbara ore characteristics and remote operations.

Artemis Gold has approved an expanded Phase 2 (EP2) development for its Blackwater gold mine in central British Columbia, increasing planned processing plant capacity beyond the 8 Mt/y targeted in the Phase 1A project now under construction. Phase 1A is scheduled to reach the 8 Mt/y run rate before the end of 2026, with EP2 adding a substantial incremental throughput above this baseline. The decision signals earlier scaling of comminution, materials handling and tailings infrastructure, with implications for mine scheduling, power demand and long-lead process equipment procurement.

Canada has approved the $53 billion merger of Anglo American and Teck Resources, clearing a deal that would create Anglo Teck with just under 5% of global copper supply and a combined market value of about $60 billion. Ottawa’s sign-off hinges on legally binding undertakings, including moving the group’s headquarters to Vancouver, investing at least C$4.5 billion in Canada over five years and C$10 billion over 15 years, plus C$100 million for a global Institute for Critical Minerals Research and Innovation and mining skills training. The transaction, the sector’s second-largest after Glencore–Xstrata, still faces antitrust reviews in Europe, the US, Chile, China, Japan and South Korea.

Ecuador’s state miner Enami plans a 2026 international tender for the $3 billion Llurimagua copper-molybdenum project in Imbabura, designed for roughly 210,000 tpa of copper over 27 years from a 982-million-tonne resource on a 4,829-hectare concession. The move follows Codelco’s exit and an ICC arbitration that awarded the Chilean company $25.3 million, far below the more than $567 million in damages it sought. Llurimagua must still overcome a revoked 2014 environmental licence and local opposition, even as Chinese groups CMOC and Jiangxi Copper and Australia’s Fortescue step up Andean copper acquisitions.

Seabridge Gold will spin out its 100%-owned Courageous Lake project in Canada’s Northwest Territories into a new listed vehicle, Valor Gold, distributing shares to existing Seabridge investors. Courageous Lake hosts 11 million oz measured and indicated (145.2 Mt at 2.36 g/t) plus 3.3 million oz inferred (40.6 Mt at 2.52 g/t), including 2.8 million oz of open-pittable proven and probable reserves at 2.6 g/t, with a February 2024 PFS outlining 201,000 oz/year over 12.6 years. At US$1,850/oz gold the PFS gives an after-tax NPV5 of US$523 million and 20.6% IRR, with further upside from a PEA-stage pit expansion and the high-grade Walsh Lake satellite (4.13 Mt at 4.18 g/t) on a largely unexplored ~500 km² land package.

Tahltan Nation members have voted to support an impact benefit agreement with Skeena Resources for the Eskay Creek gold-silver project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, covering revenue sharing, Tahltan employment and contracting, training programmes, and funding for a Tahltan elders’ facility. The Tahltan Central Government board will consider formal project consent in January, clearing a key social-licence hurdle for restarting the former Barrick underground mine as an open-pit operation. Backed by a US$750 million Orion Resource Partners package, Eskay Creek is planned to start in 2027, with a 12-year life, 39.8 Mt of reserves at 2.6 g/t Au and 68.7 g/t Ag, and forecast output of 320,000 oz AuEq per year.

Sunrise Energy Metals has raised a further A$32.5 million via a 5 million-share placement at A$6.50 to fund pre-construction at its Syerston scandium project in New South Wales, taking total recent equity financing to about A$105 million, with A$59 million still subject to shareholder approval and a potential US EXIM loan of $67 million pending. The Syerston deposit hosts nearly 46 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 414 ppm scandium and is designed to produce about 60 tonnes of scandium per year over a 32-year mine life. Lockheed Martin has already signalled offtake interest for roughly 25% of annual output under the Australia–US critical minerals pact, providing early demand visibility for project development decisions.

McEwen Mining has secured Mexican federal approval to extend the environmental impact assessment for its El Gallo project in Sinaloa, clearing the way for Phase 1 mill construction targeted to start mid-2026 and first gold pour in 2027. Phase 1 of the Fenix redevelopment will reprocess material from the existing historical leach pad via a new mill and leach circuit, aiming for about 20,000 oz gold-equivalent per year over 10 years, with initial capex estimated at US$42 million. A contemplated Phase 2 would add in-situ silver deposits for an extra US$24 million, potentially extending mine life beyond the current plan.

Vale, Caterpillar and dealer Sotreq have agreed to expand Vale’s autonomous haulage fleet in the Northern System in Pará from 14 Cat MineStar Command trucks today to about 90 units by 2028, including models rated up to 400 tonnes. Deployment will roll out across the Serra Norte and Serra Sul iron ore units over five years, building on autonomous operations that started in 2019. Vale reports up to 15% gains in operational performance, up to 7.5% fuel savings and more than 260 staff already retrained for digital and supervisory roles.

Rhodes Ridge Joint Venture partners have approved a US$191 million feasibility study (Rio Tinto share US$96 million) for the first phase of the Rhodes Ridge iron ore project in Western Australia’s Pilbara. The study will define an initial production hub, including mine, crushing and screening facilities, overland conveying and rail connection into Rio Tinto’s existing Pilbara network. Outcomes will shape pit design, geotechnical slope parameters, materials handling capacity and integration with current 220+ Mt/y system infrastructure.

Cat Customer Value Agreements (CVAs) package planned maintenance, genuine Cat parts and condition monitoring into fixed-term support contracts to keep earthmoving and road construction fleets productive over the full machine life. Agreements typically bundle scheduled servicing, fluid sampling and dealer inspections aligned to OEM intervals, with options for connected asset monitoring via Product Link and VisionLink to track hours, fuel burn and fault codes. For contractors running mixed-age fleets on tight programmes, CVAs shift major lifecycle costs to predictable OPEX and reduce unplanned downtime risk on critical assets such as graders, pavers and wheel loaders.

The Western Australian Government has announced an extra $80 million for road safety, including $27 million for targeted advertising, community education and public awareness campaigns aimed at curbing dangerous driving. A further $25 million will fund ongoing road safety programmes, with the balance directed to enforcement and supporting measures to reduce crash frequency and severity on local and regional roads. Practitioners should expect increased emphasis on behaviour-change interventions alongside traditional engineering treatments in future project briefs and funding bids.

Ballard Mining has identified multiple new gold-mineralised zones at Mt Ida, extending beyond the existing Baldock deposit and signalling broader potential across the project area. Early drilling and mapping indicate structurally controlled lodes outside the current resource envelope, suggesting scope to expand strike length and potentially deepen the mineral inventory. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, the emerging multi-lode geometry will affect pit shell optimisation, geotechnical domains, and future underground access design.

Feasibility studies are underway at Rio Tinto and Wright Prospecting’s Rhodes Ridge joint venture in the Pilbara, described by Rio as “one of the world’s best undeveloped iron ore deposits”. The work is assessing development options for a large-scale operation, with studies to define mine layout, pit sequencing, haulage corridors and integration with Rio’s existing Pilbara rail and port network. Outcomes will shape future strip ratios, processing flowsheets and infrastructure requirements for bringing new high-grade tonnes into Western Australia’s iron ore supply chain.

Motion is positioning itself as a single-source reliability partner for Australian mines by integrating bearings, power transmission, hydraulics, and condition monitoring services under one national brand. The company focuses on reducing unplanned downtime on critical assets such as conveyors, crushers, and pumps through onsite reliability audits, vibration analysis, and predictive maintenance programmes. For maintenance and reliability engineers, the key shift is from transactional parts supply to bundled technical support, inventory management, and field service aimed at extending component life and stabilising plant availability.

Depth extension drilling at AIC Mines’ Jericho copper deposit in Queensland has confirmed high-grade mineralisation at depth, materially expanding the system beyond the current resource envelope. Recent holes have intersected thick copper sulphide zones below existing drilling, supporting the potential to grow both tonnage and mine life at the Eloise copper mine hub. For geotechnical and mine planners, the deeper, continuous lenses point to a longer-term underground development scenario and justify further step-out drilling and updated resource modelling.

Antipa Minerals has advanced pre-feasibility work on its 100 per cent-owned Minyari Dome gold–copper project in Western Australia’s Paterson Province, progressing mining studies, metallurgical testwork and process plant design. Current workstreams include pit optimisation, geotechnical and hydrogeological modelling, and detailed analysis of gold–copper recoveries from sulphide mineralisation to refine a conventional crush–grind–flotation flowsheet. Outcomes will drive updated resource-to-reserve conversion, mine scheduling and capital estimates, with particular focus on pit wall stability, dewatering requirements and plant throughput options.

A construction director has received a 15‑month prison term, suspended for 20 months, after using a falsified bank statement and fake British Gas invoice to claim £20,869 of non‑existent gas installation work at Epicurus House, a Sevenoaks office‑to‑six‑apartment conversion. Nicholas Couch, sole director of Frontier Technical Services Ltd, maintained that payment had been made in October 2016 until bank and British Gas checks disproved the claim, with the company later entering liquidation in April 2019. He has been disqualified as a director for four years, ordered to complete 100 hours’ unpaid work, and to pay £5,000 compensation plus £2,500 costs, signalling tighter scrutiny of project financial records.

Caddick Construction has begun a £9.4m build of a 52,000 sq ft testing, manufacturing and distribution facility for Vulcan Seals at Rotherham’s Advanced Manufacturing Park, seven miles from the firm’s current Sheffield base. The project will form Vulcan Seals’ new global headquarters, consolidating R&D, composite seal production and logistics for mechanical seals and encapsulated O-rings supplied via distributors in over 100 countries. For contractors and consultants, the scheme signals continued demand for high-spec industrial floors, services and process-ready space on advanced manufacturing clusters in South Yorkshire.

A masterplan outline application by Arlington Real Estate and Homes England proposes West Hartford Park, a 126‑acre industrial and logistics scheme at Cramlington delivering over one million sq ft of B2/B8 floorspace in units from 174,375 sq ft to 532,000 sq ft. The site, five miles from the deep‑sea Port of Blyth and within the Energy Central Partnership and AI Growth Zones, is positioned for offshore energy, clean tech and advanced manufacturing occupiers. The £400m scheme is forecast to create around 2,000 jobs and add significant port‑related capacity.