Geomechanics.io

McLaren Construction has started main works on Wrexham AFC’s new 5,500-seat Kop Stand, a Populous-designed structure that will lift the Racecourse Ground’s capacity above 18,000 and is targeted for UEFA Category 4 compliance by the 2026/27 season. Early works have included reduced-level excavation, a stabilised construction platform, piling mat installation, crane platforms and initial piling, with foundations, reinforced concrete lift cores and internal service ducting now progressing on a tight, live stadium footprint. The steel frame will comprise about 1,500 tonnes of steel, followed by precast terrace units, slip-formed concrete cores for roof stability, and a brick façade referencing Wrexham’s “Terracottapolis” heritage.

UK net zero building targets for 2030 and 2050 are at risk, with a House of Commons energy security and net zero committee report warning of a shortfall of at least 250,000 construction workers for new housing alone, plus large numbers for retrofit. MPs call for a nationally recognised, industry-backed construction and retrofit skills programme, expanded “try-before-you-buy” training, and targeted public funding to support SMEs in taking on inexperienced trainees. The report also flags likely short‑term reliance on importing specialist skills unless domestic completion and retention rates in construction FE improve sharply.

Industry ingenuity and breakthroughs in tunnelling were recognised at the NCE Tunnelling Awards 2025, which focused on advances in construction technology, project delivery, social value and sustainability. Categories covered innovations in areas such as mechanised excavation, digital design and monitoring, and low‑carbon construction methods for complex underground works. For geotechnical and civil engineers, the awards signal where clients and contractors are now prioritising investment, particularly in data‑rich ground investigation, optimised lining design and reduced whole‑life carbon for major tunnel assets.

The National Underground Asset Register (Nuar), a government-backed digital map of buried pipes and cables, is expanding to target contractors with near real-time access to multi-utility asset data before excavation. The platform aggregates location information from water, gas, electricity and telecoms operators into a single online interface, replacing multiple separate searches and paper plans. For ground engineers and civils contractors, Nuar aims to cut service strikes and unplanned outages on streetworks and major schemes by providing faster, more accurate asset location snapshots at the planning and permit stages.

MinEx CRC is advancing several mineral exploration technologies in 2025, including coiled-tubing diamond drilling systems designed to cut metre-rate costs and in-field sensing tools that acquire continuous downhole geochemistry. Prototype rigs are targeting deeper cover sequences typical of Australian greenfields, using smaller footprints and reduced drilling fluids to minimise site disturbance and mobilisation time. For geoscientists and drill contractors, the work signals faster stratigraphic drilling, denser subsurface datasets, and potentially different design assumptions for access tracks, pads and water supply on remote programmes.

Gold prices set multiple all‑time highs in 2024 and the World Gold Council’s 2026 outlook points to continued support from central bank buying and persistent geopolitical risk. The WGC notes record official‑sector net purchases above typical pre‑2018 levels and resilient over‑the‑counter investment demand despite higher real yields. For miners, the outlook suggests sustained margins for existing operations but cautions that new greenfield gold projects will still face tight financing conditions and scrutiny on all‑in sustaining costs and jurisdictional risk.

Australian mining and METS companies will use Austmine’s 2025–26 international program to showcase technologies such as advanced drill automation, ore-sorting systems and mine ventilation optimisation to buyers in key markets including North America, Latin America and Asia. Delegations will be organised around major trade shows and site visits, giving suppliers of fleet management software, remote operations platforms and tailings monitoring systems direct access to Tier-1 miners and EPCMs. For engineers, this signals more export-ready Australian solutions in areas like haulage optimisation, underground communications and decarbonisation of diesel fleets.

Regulators have advised that Thames Water’s proposed £7bn Abingdon reservoir is sufficiently mature to move to the next development stage, unlocking further public funding for detailed design and assessment. The strategic storage scheme, intended to bolster long-term water supply resilience for London and the South East, will now undergo more advanced option appraisal and environmental scrutiny. However, regulators have questioned the scheme’s value-for-money case, signalling closer interrogation of cost assumptions, demand forecasts and alternative supply or demand-management options.

Record monsoon floods and landslides have killed more than 600 people across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, with Sri Lanka’s central highlands and Indonesia’s West Sumatra and South Sulawesi provinces suffering major slope failures. Prolonged rainfall well above seasonal averages has triggered debris flows, embankment breaches and riverbank collapses, overwhelming drainage canals and older flood defences in low-lying urban areas. Geotechnical teams are prioritising emergency slope stabilisation, rapid debris clearance on key highways and reassessment of design rainfall and factor-of-safety assumptions for cut slopes and retaining structures.

A catastrophic landslide in Afaahiti on Tahiti’s southeastern coast has killed at least eight people and left several missing after heavily saturated hillside slopes collapsed during intense rainfall. The failure involved a steep, previously vegetated slope above residential areas, with debris flows destroying multiple homes and blocking local roads that connect to the coastal ring route. Authorities are now assessing residual slope stability, potential for secondary failures, and the need for rapid drainage works, slope reinforcement and revised setback distances for hillside development.

GeoStudio 2025.2 adds a 3D Sweep Option that extrudes 2D geometries along user-defined paths, enabling faster setup of complex 3D embankments, tunnels and slopes without full re‑meshing. The release upgrades GeoStudio Python scripting with improved object access and automation of batch analyses, and expands language support to Simplified Chinese, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish. For practitioners, this means quicker parametric studies, easier integration with in‑house workflows, and wider deployment across multinational design teams.

Rio Tinto has produced its first copper cathode from the Johnson Camp mine in Arizona using its proprietary Nuton® bioleaching technology after more than 30 years of R&D. The Nuton process targets low-grade and complex sulphide ores that are typically uneconomic with conventional heap leach or concentrator routes, aiming to recover additional copper from existing waste and tailings. For mine planners and metallurgists, the trial signals potential brownfield uplift in copper recovery without major new concentrator builds, subject to scale-up performance and permitting.

Metso has secured a circa-€55 million ($64 million) contract to supply key process equipment and services for Harmony’s Eva Copper Mine Project in Queensland, Australia, the first greenfield copper concentrator of comparable scale in the region in more than a decade. The deal covers the core concentrator package, with Metso responsible for long-term service support to stabilise throughput and availability. For project engineers, the partnership signals a move towards standardised, OEM-backed concentrator design and lifecycle maintenance on a major new Australian copper asset.

Myriota has announced general availability of its HyperPulse 5G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN), a space-enabled IoT connectivity platform offering global coverage for remote industrial assets from 15 December. The system uses satellite-based 5G NTN links to connect low-power IoT devices directly, removing dependence on terrestrial towers across mines, rail corridors and remote pipelines. For mining operators, this enables always-on monitoring of mobile and fixed equipment fleets, tailings and pit wall sensors, and environmental stations in previously unserved locations.

Odysight.ai has completed a proof-of-concept with a major international automotive OEM by installing its AI-powered visual sensing and predictive maintenance system on an 8×4 heavy-duty mining truck chassis. The on-vehicle platform uses camera-based condition monitoring rather than traditional sensor-only PdM, targeting early detection of structural, suspension and drivetrain issues under haul-truck duty cycles. For mine operators, the approach signals potential to shift some inspection and failure-detection tasks from scheduled manual checks to continuous, image-driven diagnostics on large mining fleets.

Larvotto Resources has purchased Elemission’s ECORE drill core scanning system for its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales, making Hillgrove the only mine site in Australia with on-site laser ablation and atomic emission spectroscopy. The system will be used for both exploration and metallurgical development, enabling rapid, high-resolution elemental analysis directly on drill core rather than relying solely on off-site laboratory assays. For geologists and metallurgists, this should tighten geological models, speed domaining and recovery testwork, and improve decision-making on complex antimony-gold mineralisation.

TAKRAF Mining Technology (Beijing) and CFHI Tianjin Heavy Industries have signed a cooperation framework agreement in Beijing to jointly target China’s open-pit mining equipment market. The strategic partnership combines TAKRAF’s design and systems expertise in large-scale continuous mining equipment such as bucket-wheel excavators, spreaders and conveyors with CFHI’s heavy fabrication and manufacturing base in Tianjin. For Chinese operators, the move signals potential for more locally manufactured, large-capacity open-pit systems with shorter delivery chains and closer in-country service support.

Latrobe Magnesium has produced its first sustainable magnesium oxide at a demonstration plant in Hazelwood North, Victoria, using proprietary technology to extract magnesium from Latrobe Valley brown coal fly ash. The process targets commercial production of both magnesium metal and supplementary cementitious material (SCM)-grade by-products, aiming to replace imported magnesia and reduce cement clinker content. For geotechnical and concrete practitioners, locally sourced MgO and SCM from waste ash could alter binder specifications, shrinkage control strategies, and durability mix designs in eastern Australia.

Auric Mining has reported $10.8 million in revenue from its first Munda gold campaign near Widgiemooltha, Western Australia, signalling robust early-stage performance from the open-pit operation. Premier1 Lithium and Flynn Gold also released strong exploration results from their lithium and gold projects respectively, adding momentum to drilling programmes across multiple greenfield and brownfield tenements. For mine planners and geotechs, the cashflow from Munda’s initial phase strengthens the case for further resource definition drilling, pit optimisation and potential expansion studies in the Widgiemooltha district.

Australian Strategic Materials has agreed to sell a further 60 tonnes of high‑purity neodymium‑iron‑boron (NdFeB) alloy to US magnet producer Noveon, deepening its offtake relationship and supporting plans to develop US operations. The NdFeB alloy, produced at ASM’s Korean Metals Plant (KMP), targets high‑performance permanent magnet applications in electric vehicles and wind turbines, where tight compositional control and low impurity levels are critical. For mining and processing players, the move signals continued downstream integration from rare earth oxide production into alloy and magnet supply chains linked to US demand.

Rio Tinto chief executive Simon Trott has signalled a sharpened operational focus across the company’s global portfolio, consolidating capital and management attention on its highest-margin iron ore, copper and aluminium assets. The strategy points to tighter discipline on non-core or underperforming operations, with divestments or joint ventures likely where projects cannot meet internal hurdle rates or decarbonisation pathways. For geotechnical and mining teams, this suggests stronger scrutiny of strip ratios, orebody continuity and tailings liabilities when competing for sustaining and growth capital.

Rio Tinto chief executive Simon Trott is targeting $5–10 billion from divestments and productivity gains by 2030, narrowing the portfolio to iron ore, copper, aluminium and lithium while cutting annual group capex to below $10 billion from 2028 and trimming decarbonisation spend to $1–2 billion through 2030. Non-core assets on the block include titanium dioxide, borates, land, infrastructure and processing facilities, with unit costs targeted to fall 4% between 2024 and 2030. Copper output is forecast at 860,000–875,000 tonnes in 2025, rising toward a 1 Mtpa target by 2030, while Simandou’s ramp-up is now guided at only 5–10 Mt of iron ore sales in 2026.

Rio Tinto’s Nuton venture has produced its first 99.99% copper cathode using proprietary sulphide bioleaching at Gunnison Copper’s Johnson Camp Mine in Arizona, just 18 months after starting work on site. The four-year demonstration aims to deliver about 30,000 tonnes of refined copper from the existing heap leach pad, with Nuton’s microorganisms in bioreactors achieving up to 85% recovery while eliminating milling, tailings, smelting and off-site refining. Gunnison’s 25-million-lb-per-year operation, with a 15–20-year mine life, is now focused on multi-year technical validation, third-party verification and Rio Tinto internal review.

McEwen Mining reports that new drilling at the Froome mine in northern Ontario has increased the high-grade gold zone by about 45%, with hole 25PR-G467 returning 31 metres at 7.7 g/t from 298 metres and 25PR-G478 cutting 15 metres at 6.1 g/t from 328 metres. Mineralisation has been extended 100 metres vertically and up to 50 metres west in the Froome West zone, remains open at depth, and is being tested by four active surface diamond rigs. Continued success could support concurrent mining at Froome and the planned Stock mine from mid-2026, ahead of an updated Froome West resource due in February.