Geomechanics.io

AIC Mines has reported an “unusually high” conversion rate after upgrading four exploration targets to prospects at its Eloise regional copper project in North Queensland, following recent RC and diamond drilling. The work extends the mineralised corridor around the Eloise copper mine, where existing underground operations target high-grade sulphide lenses at depths typically greater than 300m. The expanded prospect pipeline signals sustained drilling, resource definition and potential satellite ore feed to the Eloise processing plant, with implications for long-term mine planning and regional infrastructure.

KOR is deploying Cappellotto vacuum and jetting units to manage tailings, slurry and spillage clean-up in Australian mine plants, reducing unplanned shutdowns where an hour of downtime can cost millions. The truck-mounted systems combine high‑vacuum pumps, high‑pressure water jets and large-capacity debris tanks, and can be customised with different boom reaches, filtration stages and hose configurations for crushers, sumps and process lines. Faster, mechanised clean-up reduces manual entry into confined spaces and around conveyors, directly cutting exposure to slips, engulfment and mobile plant interactions.

South Australia’s Torrens to Darlington (T2D) transport corridor, a major upgrade of the North-South Motorway in Adelaide, is using Indigenous majority-owned civil contractor Karta Indigenous Services for key earthworks and site operations. Working alongside ResourceCo, Karta is delivering materials handling, haulage and on-corridor civil works while embedding Indigenous employment, training and subcontracting pathways into long-duration packages. The model shows how large linear infrastructure jobs can structure quarry products supply, spoil management and labour procurement to build local capability rather than relying solely on traditional Tier 1 supply chains.

Demolition and 24/7 construction works on the Albury to Illabo section of Inland Rail are commencing along roughly 185 kilometres of existing rail corridor between Victoria and New South Wales. The programme includes removal of legacy structures and reconstruction of key assets such as station footbridges and level crossings to provide greater vertical and horizontal clearances for double-stacked freight trains. For civil and track engineers, the works signal a shift from design to heavy brownfield delivery, with tight possession windows and interface risks in live rail and urban environments.

A stormwater upgrade on Cliff Drive in Leura, NSW’s Blue Mountains, replaced a failed culvert after landslip damage from repeated extreme rainfall, with civil contractor Brefni working on steep terrain and in environmentally sensitive bushland. Coates supplied an integrated shoring and dewatering solution plus plant hire, enabling safe excavation and culvert installation in unstable ground conditions while maintaining road access. The project was completed ahead of schedule and has since received an industry award, signalling the value of coordinated temporary works design in landslip-prone corridors.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will cut capital gains tax relief on disposals to employee ownership trusts from 100% to 50%, targeting a scheme now projected to cost £2bn in foregone revenue since its 2013 launch and affecting recent EOT conversions at firms such as Gilbert-Ash, Conlon Group, Cheetham Hill Construction and Martin-Brooks Roofing. The change is expected to save £900m a year, alongside frozen income tax and employer NIC thresholds from 2028/29 projected to raise £8bn through fiscal drag. Salary-sacrifice pension contributions will become taxable, adding £4.7bn, with a 2-point rise on dividend, property and savings tax rates raising a further £2.1bn.

The UK Treasury has confirmed that the £9bn Lower Thames Crossing will proceed on a regulated asset base (RAB) model, with an additional £891m of public funding allocated to complete pre-construction works before private finance takes over construction and operation. Investors are expected to draw regulated revenue from the existing tolled Dartford Crossing during the new crossing’s construction, with the new crossing itself also tolled, mirroring approaches used on Thames Tideway and Sizewell C to lower the cost of capital. Market engagement on the RAB structure will start in 2026, and it remains unclear whether future asset owners will retain National Highways’ current delivery teams – Bouygues/Murphy JV for the tunnels and Skanska and Balfour Beatty for the approach roads – or re-tender major packages.

Government has scrapped plans to abolish the reduced rate of landfill tax, dropping proposals that would have raised charges on non-contaminated construction spoil from £4 to £126 per tonne by 2030, a move house-builders said would add about £15,000 per home and £1.26bn to London projects plus £437m to HS2. Instead, the standard rate will track RPI and the lower rate will rise by the same cash amount, preserving the gap, while the tax exemption for quarry backfilling is retained. Industry bodies warn that, despite avoiding the steep hike, higher lower-rate uplifts (forecast to raise £420m by 2030/31) and new higher business rates for large quarries, cement and asphalt plants will still increase costs and could influence waste routing and materials strategies on major schemes.

Australia and the European Union are preparing to deepen cooperation on critical minerals through jointly supported projects spanning exploration, processing and downstream value chains. The partnership is expected to prioritise EU-listed critical raw materials such as lithium, rare earths and cobalt from Australian deposits, with a focus on traceable supply chains and ESG-compliant offtake. For miners and processors, this signals potential access to EU co-funding, long-term supply contracts and stricter reporting on emissions, waste and community impacts.

The Global Resources Innovation Expo 2026 (GRX26) will run in Perth from 5–7 May 2026, positioning Australia’s mining and METS sector as host for a concentrated three‑day programme of technology, equipment and services. Organised by AusIMM, the event is expected to draw international operators, OEMs and technology vendors to showcase advances in areas such as automation, digital mine planning and mineral processing equipment. For engineers, GRX26 offers direct access to suppliers and case studies relevant to brownfield optimisation, remote operations and decarbonisation projects.

Fortescue has ended its legal action against three former senior executives who left to found green iron start-up Element Zero, reaching a confidential settlement and dropping claims over alleged misuse of confidential information. The dispute centred on Fortescue’s own green iron ambitions within its Fortescue Energy division and concerns that Element Zero’s technology development could overlap with internal decarbonisation work. Resolution removes a potential constraint on Element Zero’s fundraising and technology partnerships while clarifying competitive boundaries for green iron process development in Australia.

SolGold has set 2026 for early works at its Cascabel copper-gold project in northern Ecuador, fast-tracking site preparation, resource drilling and a two-unit corporate restructuring to target first production in 2028. The revised schedule focuses on accelerating enabling works for underground development and surface infrastructure while separating exploration and project development into distinct business units. For engineers and contractors, the timeline signals upcoming demand for geotechnical investigations, access roads, platforms and early civils to support mine construction within a compressed pre-production window.

Aya Gold & Silver has reported its strongest intercept to date at the Boumadine polymetallic project in Morocco, with both infill and step-out drilling returning high-grade silver, gold, zinc and lead over significant widths. Recent holes along the Main Trend and South Zone are extending mineralisation beyond the current resource envelope while tightening drill spacing in the central area for an updated estimate. An analyst notes that results to date support further resource growth, signalling upside for future mine planning and metallurgy work.

A 1,971‑kilogram silver bullion bar measuring 1.3 metres in length has been unveiled in Dubai, setting a new Guinness World Record for the largest silver bar. The record piece, cast as a single ingot, far exceeds standard 1,000‑oz (c. 31 kg) London Good Delivery bars, illustrating the casting and handling challenges of producing and moving nearly 2 tonnes of refined silver in one block. For miners and refiners, it serves mainly as a marketing and metallurgical showcase rather than a practical trading unit.

Canada has ordered a national security review of the proposed US$53 billion merger between Teck Resources and Anglo American under the Investment Canada Act, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly confirmed. The review adds regulatory uncertainty and potential delay to combining Teck’s steelmaking coal and copper assets with Anglo’s global portfolio, which includes major operations in Chile, South Africa and Australia. Any conditions imposed could affect future capital allocation, mine divestments and approvals for large-scale brownfield and greenfield expansions in Canada.

Eldorado Gold has increased proven and probable reserves by 5%, reporting 371.7 million tonnes at 1.05 g/t for about 12.5 million oz of contained gold as of end-September. The update materially extends mine life across its portfolio, with the grade sitting in the typical range for large open-pit and underground gold operations. Geotechnical and mine planning teams will need to revisit pit shells, underground stope designs and long-term tailings and waste storage requirements to accommodate the larger reserve base.

Rio Tinto is preparing to sell its US boron assets, which Bloomberg values at up to $2 billion, signalling a potential exit from one of the world’s key borates supply centres. The portfolio is expected to include the long‑life US Borax operations in California’s Mojave Desert, a major source of refined borates used in glass, ceramics and fertilisers. Any sale would reshape the borates market and could alter long‑term offtake, logistics and processing strategies for downstream industrial users.

Torrential monsoon rainfall over the past week in North Sumatra has triggered debris-laden flash floods and multiple landslides, killing at least 10 people and leaving six missing in districts including Toba and Samosir. Police and BNPB teams report riverbank failures and slope collapses along road corridors and near settlements, with access to several upland villages cut by washed-out embankments and blocked mountain passes. For geotechnical and civil engineers, the events point to highly saturated residual soils, inadequate slope drainage, and vulnerable transport links in steep catchments during peak monsoon conditions.

Keller has completed a ground improvement scheme for Encinal High School Stadium in Alameda, California, collaborating with the project geotechnical engineer to satisfy California Geological Survey seismic requirements. The solution, delivered as part of a larger stadium renovation, used ground improvement to mitigate liquefaction and lateral spreading risks identified in the site’s young bay mud and loose granular fills. For practitioners, the project shows how early contractor–engineer integration can tailor seismic ground improvement to school facilities on soft, seismically active coastal deposits.

Cutting-edge 3D geological modelling for the Vienna metro extension now covers roughly half the city, integrating borehole logs, historic excavation records and geotechnical lab data into a single subsurface model. Presented at the World Tunnel Congress, the workflow supports alignment selection, station box siting and tunnel support classes by quantifying uncertainties in soil and rock units, groundwater conditions and fault zones. For designers and contractors, the model is being used to refine excavation sequences, reduce geotechnical risk allowances and justify design decisions to the client.

Tilbury Douglas has begun a £14m project to convert an existing building in Coventry into a community diagnostic centre (CDC) for NHS Property Services and University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust. The facility, located near the Coventry Urgent Treatment Centre, GP practices and mental health services, is designed to handle around 90,000 patients annually and deliver up to 75,000 additional diagnostic tests a year for conditions including cancer and heart disease. Opening is targeted for late 2026, with a brief for a modern, energy-efficient healthcare facility.

Expansion of the UK Boiler Upgrade Scheme now offers a £2,500 grant for air-to-air heat pumps alongside the existing £7,500 support for air-source and ground-source units, making domestic air-conditioning eligible for government funding for the first time. Carrier Solutions UK, distributor of Toshiba systems, expects this to catalyse a residential air-conditioning market, particularly in flats and apartments currently using direct-electric or storage heating. Multi-split air-to-air systems, with one outdoor unit serving several rooms, are positioned as a practical retrofit route where conventional air-to-water heat pumps are hard to install.

Work has started on Baltic Wharf in Bristol, where The Hill Group and Goram Homes will build 166 harbourside homes on a complex brownfield site on Spike Island, backed by a £2.4m Brownfield Land Release Fund grant. The scheme delivers 66 affordable units owned by Sovereign Network Group, including 50 for social rent and 16 for shared ownership, giving a 40% affordable housing mix. Plans also reopen a previously restricted waterfront, reconnecting the River Avon to the Floating Harbour with new pedestrian links, public realm, café and flexible commercial space, with first homes due spring 2027.

Mace will start main works in early 2025 on Helical’s £200m, 235,000 sq ft over-station office scheme above Paddington station, a 19-storey Grimshaw-designed canalside building with 15 office floors and ground-floor retail, now targeting completion in Q3 2028 instead of Q4 2028. Preparatory works are already under way ahead of formal site acquisition in January 2026, with Helical developing the project in joint venture with Places for London. Helical has also agreed heads of terms for forward funding a 429-studio student block above Southwark Tube and forward sale of 44 affordable homes to Southwark Council, with construction planned from H1 2026 to 2029.