Geomechanics.io

Holcim UK has acquired PJ Thory and its subsidiaries Gemmix and Pro Minimix, adding nine sites with sand and gravel and limestone quarries, readymix concrete plants and a secondary aggregate recycling centre across the East Midlands and east of England. The deal follows Heidelberg Materials’ purchase of Mick George, with the Competition & Markets Authority having previously forced quarry and readymix disposals that helped make Gemmix the UK’s largest independently owned readymix supplier. Holcim gains additional mineral reserves, expanded readymix coverage and stronger recycled aggregate capacity in a region of intense competition.

Cyprium Metals has approved restarting cathode operations at the Nifty Copper Complex in Western Australia, signalling a return to production at the previously mothballed heap leach–SX-EW facility. The decision follows board approval and positions Nifty to again produce copper cathode on site, rather than relying solely on concentrate or third-party processing. Geotechnical and processing teams will need to reassess leach pad integrity, pond liners and solution management after the operational hiatus, with particular attention to groundwater control and residual ore column performance in arid Pilbara conditions.

Mining producer Develop Global’s chief executive Bill Beament has been named the highest‑paid Australian CEO in 2025, topping a cross‑sector remuneration survey that includes major ASX‑listed miners and contractors. His package reportedly exceeds peers at larger iron ore and coal producers, signalling how mid‑tier growth plays and project developers can now command premium executive pay. For engineers and project managers, this points to continued investor focus on aggressive brownfield expansions, fast‑tracked underground developments and higher‑risk growth strategies where leadership decisions directly affect capital allocation and schedule.

Indium recovered from existing mine waste streams could underpin a domestic Australian solar PV manufacturing sector, with a new study pointing to tailings from zinc and lead operations as a major untapped source. Researchers note that indium is a key component in indium tin oxide (ITO) coatings for high‑efficiency thin‑film cells, yet Australia currently exports concentrates and imports finished solar modules. The work signals opportunities for retrofitting hydrometallurgical circuits at established base‑metal plants to extract indium, adding revenue while reducing long‑term tailings liabilities.

Nyrstar has produced its first antimony metal from a pilot plant at the Port Pirie smelter in South Australia, marking Australia’s initial domestic antimony casting from a multi-metal facility. The pilot uses existing lead–zinc smelting infrastructure to process antimony-bearing feed, aiming to validate flowsheet performance and metal quality before any scale-up. For process and project engineers, the move signals potential future integration of antimony circuits into established base metal plants, reducing reliance on imported antimony trioxide and metal.

Intelligent GNSS slope monitoring systems in open cut mines are moving from intermittent logging to permanently powered operation, collecting one position every 10 seconds and using interquartile filtering to deliver millimetric precision beyond standard centimetre-level RTK. Embedded software rejects outliers beyond 1.5–3 × IQR, routinely detecting 1–2 mm movements and generating multi-tiered products such as 5-minute (≈60-epoch) and 24-hour (≈8,640-epoch) averages. Time-series analyses show rolling 24-hour averages can cut detection lag by 40–60% for non-linear deformations, though longer 48-hour and weekly windows risk masking rapid, rainfall- or blast-driven accelerations.

AGS’s July update launches an Early Careers Video, “Discovering a Rewarding Career in the Geo-Industry”, for use by industry representatives in schools and universities, and reports 2023 geotechnical and geoenvironmental accident statistics based on a 127% increase in contributing organisations. A new two-part SiLC PTP series critiques the standard of land contamination reports submitted through the planning system, echoing regulator concerns about report quality and consistency. Forthcoming events include a 25 September EDI-focused webinar and a November Manchester meeting on groundwater impacts across design and construction stages.

AGS’s September issue centres on Fugro’s move to cut single‑use plastic in site investigation by recycling core liners, alongside guidance on structuring Employee Networks to support both staff and business performance. A new EC7 Next Gen bitesize guide stresses that BS EN 1991:2023 must be used to correctly apply FprEN 1997:2024 when assigning geotechnical risk categories to structures. Practitioners are also alerted to potential environmental law changes under the Retained EU Law Act 2023 and to upcoming AGS events on EDI, groundwater in design and construction, and the 2025 London conference.

AGS launches new Piling and Sustainability Roadmaps and confirms renewed collaboration with the British Drilling Association to target health and safety performance across geotechnical operations. The group backs wider adoption of the National Quality Mark Scheme (NQMS) in response to regulatory concerns over investigation and reporting quality, and flags upcoming technical events on cone penetration testing (29 January 2025) and effective procurement of ground investigations (26 March 2025). An in‑person AGS Annual Conference on 1 May 2025 will focus on “The Future” of ground engineering practice.

AGS’s March issue centres on women’s safety and wellbeing in geotechnics, including profiles of SiLC’s female leads and reflections on basic PPE gaps such as safety boots not available in smaller sizes. Technical content covers EC7-compliant ground model construction, Net Zero-focused rolling dynamic compaction, and current constraints in professional indemnity insurance identified by the Loss Prevention Working Group. Forthcoming CPD includes an April webinar on effective procurement of ground investigations and a May in-person Annual Conference themed “The Future”, with an early-career workplace innovation poster competition and networking reception.

AGS Magazine’s November 2025 issue focuses on analytical challenges in interpreting historical soil data, material management plans, and a rise in environmental disputes affecting geotechnical and geoenvironmental projects. The edition publishes the 2024 Geotechnical & Geoenvironmental Industry Accident Statistics, giving sector-wide safety performance data to benchmark site practices and risk controls. Early-career initiatives feature strongly, with an AGS Early Careers Poster Competition on “Top Five Industry Insights” and promotion of the Ground Forum Undergraduate Mentoring Programme for structured mentoring of future ground engineers.

Excavation on the 2.6km Rocchetta Tunnel on the Apice–Hirpinia section of the Naples–Bari high-speed, high-capacity railway has reached a key stage with completion of the first tube’s full-face advance. The contractor, using conventional drill-and-blast with systematic pre-support in variable Apennine geology, is now shifting resources to the second tube while maintaining parallel works on the tunnel invert and final lining. Progress on this mixed-face tunnel will drive programme risk for adjacent cut-and-cover sections, portal stabilisation and trackbed formation.

Un effondrement de pont dans une mine de cuivre-cobalt en République démocratique du Congo a fait au moins 32 morts, la structure s’étant rompue alors que des travailleurs et des véhicules étaient en train de la franchir. L’incident s’est produit dans un couloir minier en activité, où le pont assurait un accès essentiel au-dessus d’un chenal de roulage ou de drainage, et les équipes de secours sont encore en train de récupérer les corps et d’évaluer la stabilité des terrassements adjacents. Cette défaillance soulève des questions immédiates concernant la capacité portante du pont, la gestion de la corrosion et de la fatigue, ainsi que les conditions de soutènement géotechnique dans les infrastructures minières fortement sollicitées par le trafic.

Ground improvement for the City of Hamilton’s new bus maintenance and storage facility was redesigned by Keller after differing ground conditions were discovered during construction. Keller replaced the original foundation concept with an alternative scheme using ground improvement techniques tailored to variable subsurface conditions, avoiding extensive deep foundations and programme delays. The solution allowed the large-footprint depot structure and hardstand areas to be supported on improved ground, controlling settlement while keeping construction within the city’s budget constraints.

A major landslide on the 33‑kilometre Khanh Le Pass in central Viet Nam buried a passenger bus late on Sunday, killing six people and injuring 19. The mountain road, cut into steep terrain with deeply weathered residual soils, is already known for frequent rockfalls and debris slides during intense rainfall. The incident highlights urgent needs for detailed slope stability assessment, improved drainage, and engineered protection measures such as retaining structures, rockfall barriers, and real‑time monitoring on this and similar high‑risk corridors.

A severe geomagnetic storm forecast for mid-November 2025, rated G4–G5 and driven by multiple coronal mass ejections, is prompting grid operators to pre-emptively isolate selected high-voltage transmission circuits to protect large transformers while keeping consumer supply stable. Induced geomagnetically driven currents in long conductors threaten high‑latitude power networks, with likely temporary shutdowns or derating as protection relays trip on rapid voltage and frequency fluctuations. Satellite-based GPS, high‑frequency radio and mobile networks may suffer timing errors and intermittent loss, stressing geotechnical operations that depend on precise positioning, remote monitoring and emergency communications.

Heavy rainfall across Indonesia’s Central Java has triggered multiple landslides, with the most severe in Cibeunying village burying at least 35 houses and cutting a key district road. Steep residual soil slopes, shallow colluvial deposits and deforested hillsides failed after several days of intense rain, with local officials reporting tension cracks and minor slips on adjacent slopes now at risk of progressive failure. Emergency works focus on debris clearance, temporary gabion retaining structures and drainage channels, but long-term stabilisation will require detailed geotechnical mapping and slope zoning.

Asbestos-contaminated coloured play sand has triggered widespread recalls and temporary closures of schools and preschools across Australia and New Zealand after laboratory tests detected tremolite and chrysotile fibres. Authorities are tracing supply chains for multiple imported sand batches and conducting confirmatory bulk and air sampling, with some sites requiring full playground cordons and controlled removal of loose fill. Geotechnical and environmental consultants are being engaged for asbestos risk assessments, remediation design and validation testing, particularly where sand was used over unsealed subgrades or near drainage lines.

Rising water levels in Kenya’s Lake Naivasha have submerged large parts of Kihoto estate, displacing about 7,000 people and forcing the use of tourist boats for evacuation as access roads and ground floors are inundated. Local officials report that the lake has been rising for more than a decade, with recent levels overtopping informal embankments and flooding masonry houses, pit latrines and septic systems. Geotechnical concerns now centre on saturated foundations, slope instability on reclaimed lakebed plots, and contamination risks from submerged sanitation infrastructure.

Mount Semeru in East Java has been raised to the highest alert level after entering a new phase of intense activity, with ash columns reported above several kilometres and villages blanketed in thick deposits. Authorities have ordered mass evacuations from settlements on the volcano’s flanks and along key river valleys that previously channelled lahars in the 2021 eruption. For geotechnical and civil teams, priority issues are ash loading on lightweight roofs, rapid assessment of slope stability on ash-covered road embankments, and lahar risk to bridges and culverts.

Central Alabama Water signalled it will stick with its existing Lake Purdy Dam stabilisation concept after its board heard conflicting expert recommendations on alternative designs. Vice Chair Phillip Wiedmeyer said the utility intends to proceed with the current plan, despite consultants presenting differing approaches to address the dam’s stability and safety margins. The decision keeps design assumptions and geotechnical investigation scope unchanged for now, affecting timelines for any foundation treatment, embankment works or spillway modifications.

Simex is launching the second-generation ART 1000 GEN II road maintenance attachment, designed for in-situ regeneration of asphalt with zero waste by milling, mixing and relaying material in a single pass. The patented unit, supplied locally by Total Rockbreaking Solutions, mounts on standard carriers and treats only the damaged lane area, avoiding full-depth reconstruction and reducing haulage of spoil and new asphalt. For pavement engineers, the system targets faster patching cycles, lower material consumption and improved lifecycle performance on heavily trafficked urban and arterial roads.

VEGA is promoting non-contact, maintenance-free level monitoring for crushed limestone and cement handling, using radar-based sensors across quarrying, crushing, mixing and stockpiling operations. The systems are designed to cope with dust, build-up and variable bulk densities typical of silos, hoppers and stockpiles, avoiding mechanical floats or ultrasonic units that require frequent cleaning and recalibration. For road and infrastructure plants, this enables tighter control of feed rates and inventory in high-throughput cement and aggregate circuits, with fewer shutdowns for sensor access.

Nominations remain open for the Queensland Government’s School Transport Infrastructure Program, which funds road safety upgrades and active transport links around state schools. Eligible schools have until next week to apply for works such as reconfigured drop-off and parking facilities, upgraded bus set-down and pick-up zones, and new or widened bikeways. Designers should expect projects focused on traffic calming, safer pedestrian–vehicle interfaces and segregated cycling access in constrained school-frontage corridors.