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Australia’s national AI plan abandons last year’s proposal for mandatory AI-specific guardrails, instead relying on existing workplace, privacy and safety laws while creating a $30 million AI Safety Institute from 2026 to monitor risks. The approach has split stakeholders, with Greens Senator David Shoebridge warning of “glib assurances”, while the Business Council’s Bran Black calls for a gap analysis before any new regulation. The Federal Government is expected to lean on mining’s AI experience in predictive maintenance, exploration analytics and automation to drive adoption in defence, education and infrastructure.

Bentry Capital has bought the 23,456 sq ft Branch Hill House in Hampstead Village for £16.4m, planning a three-year conversion of the 1901 Edwardian baroque mansion and its 1.7-acre plot into No1 Hampstead, a gated scheme of about 50 premium apartments plus a standalone townhouse. The project will demolish the 1960s council-built wing and construct a new-build extension matching the original Sandringham-style façade, restoring period features throughout. Heritage specialist Stanhope Gate Architecture will revive and adjust the lapsed 2021 planning consent and optimise the one‑, two‑ and three‑bed lateral unit mix.

Hercules’ Civils Projects division has secured around £6.2m of sub-contracts starting Q1 2026 on clean and wastewater treatment sites, with £4.2m in the Thames Water region and £2m in the Anglian Water region. The work will sit within AMP8’s expanded capital programme, where both utilities are planning major upgrades to ageing treatment assets and associated civils structures. For contractors and consultants, the move signals growing opportunities in water-sector civils packages as large framework owners push more delivery to specialist sub-contractors.

A six-week public consultation has opened on phase one of Mix Manchester, a Chinese-backed science, innovation and manufacturing campus adjacent to Manchester Airport, promoted by a joint venture of Beijing Construction Engineering Group, Manchester Airports Group, Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester Pension Fund. The hybrid planning application will seek full consent for 6,750 m² of “mid-tech” space in three buildings (11 workspaces plus amenity space) and a multi-storey car park with ground-floor commercial units. Outline consent is also sought for over 100,000 m² of future flexible hybrid commercial and medium-to-large-scale manufacturing space.

Changes to London’s planning system to prioritise office redevelopment could unlock £262bn of investment and an £84bn economic boost, with the London Property Alliance and Knight Frank warning of an 11 million sq ft office shortfall over the next five years in the central activities zone. Some 147 million sq ft – 56% of central stock – is “secondary” space likely to miss 2030 sustainability standards, while prime and Grade A vacancy is at 0.8% and 1.7% respectively and only 12 single floors above 40,000 sq ft remain. Developers cite rising construction, labour and finance costs plus expanding planning obligations as tipping many retrofit and rebuild schemes into non-viability.

John Graham Construction has been appointed main contractor for the University of East London’s £45m New Academic Building in Stratford, the flagship element of a £170m Stratford Health Campus. The facility, scheduled to start on site in early 2026 and complete by summer 2027, will house medical and healthcare teaching and research subject to General Medical Council approval. Targeting BREEAM Outstanding, the design leans on cross-laminated timber, low‑carbon construction methods and circular design principles, signalling strong demand for high‑performance sustainable materials and detailing.

The Federation of Master Builders has overhauled its builder contract templates to reflect the Building Safety Act 2022, explicitly allocating duty holder roles and clarifying who carries design, construction management and compliance responsibilities where architects and engineers decline principal designer duties due to insurance limits. Authored by contract specialist Sarah Fox, the new forms run to just 14–15 pages versus typical 80+ page industry contracts and are free for FMB members. For contractors on small to mid‑scale projects, this offers a practical route to documenting liability, reducing disputes and aligning site practice with the new safety regime.

XCMG Machinery has begun shipping a fleet of 230 t-payload XDE260 diesel-electric haul trucks from its Xuzhou intelligent manufacturing base to the SimFer-operated Simandou Blocks 3 & 4 iron ore project in Guinea. The 240 t-class trucks will support large-scale open-pit development at Simandou, where haul profiles, ramp geometry and crusher feed rates demand high-capacity, long-haul units. Deployment of diesel-electric drives at this scale signals continued preference for trolley-ready, high-efficiency truck fleets on West African greenfield iron ore projects.

Rio Tinto’s first Pilbara-made iron ore rail car has rolled off the production line in Karratha under a A$150 million partnership with Gemco Rail to build 100 wagons in Western Australia. The milestone follows completion of 40 cars at Gemco’s Forrestfield facility near Perth, with the balance to be manufactured closer to Rio’s Pilbara rail network. Local fabrication and maintenance capability for heavy-haul rolling stock is being strengthened, which could shorten overhaul cycles and reduce logistics downtime for Rio’s long-distance ore trains.

Glencore Technology has partnered with XPS in Falconbridge, Ontario, to expand Jameson Cell flotation test work coverage across North America, using XPS’s piloting facilities and state-of-the-art mineral processing laboratories. The multidisciplinary XPS team will run laboratory and pilot-scale campaigns for operations and projects, integrating metallurgical test work with consulting and flowsheet development. For concentrator engineers, this should simplify scale-up of Jameson Cell applications in brownfield and greenfield plants, potentially shortening test programmes and de-risking circuit design changes.

EACON Mining Technology is rolling out a next‑generation autonomous haulage system in China built around on‑board perception, integrating lidar, millimetre‑wave radar and camera fusion directly on 60–100 t class trucks from Tonly, NHL and Yutong. Field deployments span a large open‑pit mine and a quarry operation, with mixed fleets running driverless haul on existing benches and ramps rather than purpose‑built AHS roads. The focus on vehicle‑centric sensing over fixed roadside infrastructure has implications for retrofitting brownfield pits and managing variable geotechnical conditions and visibility.

The Department for Transport has reiterated that it “remains committed” to the Ely Area Capacity Enhancement (EACE) scheme, but says the long-awaited upgrade will only be “considered carefully as further funding becomes available”. The programme is intended to relieve the heavily constrained Ely North and Ely Dock Junctions, a key bottleneck for freight from the Port of Felixstowe and passenger services across East Anglia. Continued uncertainty over funding timing leaves planners and contractors unable to firm up designs, phasing or possession strategies for the multi-junction rail works.

Three major European tunnelling contractors have been appointed to develop the next phase of fixed-link proposals that could replace several Shetland inter-island ferry routes with subsea road tunnels. The firms will assess technical and economic feasibility for a test-case tunnel, likely involving long subsea drives in complex North Atlantic geology with high overburden, strong currents and aggressive marine conditions. Outcomes will influence design standards, ground investigation scope and construction methodology for any future multi-tunnel programme across the archipelago.

Northern Star Resources reports strong exploration results across its Australian hubs, with deep extensions and high‑grade gold intercepts at operations including Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines in Western Australia. Drilling has identified mineralisation continuing at depth beneath existing workings, with multiple emerging zones that could support life‑of‑mine extensions and higher‑grade feed to existing mills. For mine planners and geotechs, the focus now shifts to underground access design, ground support in deeper stress regimes, and sequencing to integrate new stopes into current production.

Regis Resources is flagging a “significant pipeline” of near-mine and regional exploration targets across its Duketon and Tropicana gold operations in Western Australia, aiming to extend mine life and lift mill feed quality. The company is focusing on brownfields drilling around existing open pits and underground workings, plus greenfields prospects along under-tested shear zones within its Duketon belt and the Tropicana joint venture corridor. For geotechs and mine planners, the message is to expect ongoing resource definition drilling, updated pit shells and potential underground studies rather than major new project footprints.

Custom steel bushings engineered for excavators, loaders, rope shovels, dozers and drill rigs are being tailored to withstand high-load, abrasive and shock-intensive mining conditions. Supplier Sibo is focusing on precision machining and finishing of steel bushings to control clearances, surface hardness and lubrication behaviour, aiming to reduce wear in pivot points and boom joints. For maintenance and reliability teams, the move towards application-specific bushing geometry and metallurgy signals more scope to extend component life and lengthen shutdown intervals in heavy mobile fleets.

XCMG Australia is pushing a net-zero strategy in mining fleets using battery-electric haul trucks and loaders engineered for high-duty cycles and harsh pit conditions. The company is pairing electric drivetrains with advanced thermal management and fast-charging systems sized to typical shift patterns, aiming to minimise downtime without major changes to existing haul road geometries. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, the shift implies rethinking power distribution corridors, substation locations and pavement design to handle heavier battery vehicles and different torque–traction behaviour on ramps.

BHP and Rio Tinto have begun large‑scale trials of Caterpillar 793 XE “Early Learner” battery‑electric haul trucks in Western Australia’s Pilbara iron ore operations, marking the first deployment of this class of BEV truck in the region. The trials will test truck performance on long, high‑temperature haul profiles typical of Pilbara pits, including payload, cycle times and battery endurance under >40°C ambient conditions. Outcomes will directly influence future pit design, power infrastructure sizing and trolley or static fast‑charging layouts for ultra‑class fleets.

Harmony Gold has advanced its Eva copper project in Queensland by awarding Metso a major equipment contract as the greenfield mine moves towards site construction. The deal covers key comminution and processing plant components, with Metso to supply crushing and grinding equipment sized for large-scale copper throughput at one of Australia’s biggest planned copper developments. The contract signals design lock-in for the process flowsheet and allows detailed engineering, foundation design and construction scheduling to proceed on a firmer basis.

Mineral Resources (MinRes) has broken ground at its Lamb Creek iron ore project in the Pilbara, signalling the next phase of its onshore iron ore growth alongside existing hubs such as Iron Valley and Koolyanobbing. The project is expected to leverage MinRes’ integrated model of mine-to-port logistics, including its privately operated haulage and transhipping infrastructure, to move ore efficiently from remote deposits to coastal export points. For geotechnical and civil teams, early works will centre on pit development, haul road construction and foundation preparation for crushing and screening facilities in a cyclonic, high-temperature environment.

Argentina is being framed as the “Chile of 50 years ago”, with the same Andean porphyry copper belt that hosts Chile’s giant copper-gold systems but almost no large-scale development due to decades of political and economic instability. President Javier Milei’s post‑2023 austerity reforms have cut inflation, lifted bond prices and lowered the country‑risk index to a five‑year low, triggering renewed interest from majors. BHP’s multi‑billion‑dollar move on Filo Mining and Glencore’s review of two copper projects totalling about US$13.5 billion signal a step‑change in exploration and project pipeline risk for Argentina.

British Columbia’s Court of Appeal has ruled in Gitxaala v. British Columbia that the province’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA) incorporates UNDRIP and creates legally enforceable obligations, overturning a 2023 Supreme Court finding that DRIPA was not justiciable. The court held that B.C.’s automatic online mineral claim-staking system under the Mineral Tenure Act, used to grant claims on Banks Island between 2018 and 2020, is inconsistent with UNDRIP because it provides no opportunity for prior consultation. All B.C. mining-related statutes and regulations must now be interpreted as consistent with UNDRIP, signalling tighter consultation requirements at the mineral claims stage.

Australia’s first Cat 793 XE Early Learner battery-electric haul trucks have arrived at BHP’s Jimblebar iron ore mine in the Pilbara, where BHP and Rio Tinto will jointly test Caterpillar’s BEV heavy haulage platform under production conditions. The two 220‑t class trucks, supplied under an industry‑first shared development agreement, will be evaluated on typical Pilbara duty cycles, ramp profiles and ambient temperatures. Data from Jimblebar will feed into Caterpillar’s commercial 793 BEV design, with direct implications for trolley, charging and pit power infrastructure planning across large open pits.

Registration has opened for PDAC 2026, scheduled for 1–4 March 2026 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, positioning Toronto again as the main global hub for mineral exploration and mining deal-making. The four-day event will bring together exploration geologists, mine developers, investors, governments, students and Indigenous communities, with a programme typically spanning technical sessions on drilling, resource estimation and project finance alongside a large core shack and trade show. For engineers and project owners, early registration is key to securing meetings with equipment suppliers, drilling contractors and potential JV or offtake partners.