Geomechanics.io

A 4,600-tonne, 315-metre HS2 viaduct deck was slid over the live M6 between Junctions 4 and 5 in a 17-hour operation, using a ‘fully restrained’ strand-jack system with Teflon pads to keep the motorway open except for an M42 slip closure. The east deck’s third and final launch, preceded by a 12-metre pre-shift under full closure, is thought to be the first fully restrained slide over a UK motorway and marks halfway completion of the M6 South viaduct. Each hollow double-box weathering steel deck sits on four pairs of concrete piers up to 9.9 metres high, with 82 precast slabs pre-installed and a 4.5-metre-high parapet planned for noise control.

Azumah Resources Ghana Ltd has awarded FLS a DKK 235 million contract to supply all major equipment and main process technologies for the Black Volta gold project in Ghana, with the long-lead package booked in Q4. The scope covers core plant systems rather than discrete items, signalling a single-vendor flowsheet approach for crushing, grinding and gold recovery. For project engineers, this centralises process design responsibility with FLS and locks in key lead times for critical plant components.

SIEMAG TECBERG used its Customer Days 2025 in Haiger, Germany, to showcase what it calls a record-capacity Blair multi-rope hoist alongside its wider shaft hoisting portfolio. More than 250 international attendees from Canada, India and the USA reviewed solutions spanning complete hoisting systems, digital condition monitoring and modernisation packages for deep shafts. The event signals continued demand for high-capacity, high-availability hoists in large-scale underground mines, with emphasis on integrated mechanical, electrical and automation packages.

Glencore Technology has launched AssetCare, a dedicated division to provide end-to-end lifecycle support for its proprietary process technologies such as IsaMill™ fine grinding and Jameson Cell™ flotation systems. The unit will bundle spares, on-site technical services, remote performance monitoring and optimisation into long-term support packages for concentrators and smelters using Glencore-designed equipment worldwide. For plant operators, the move signals more OEM-led involvement in wear management, availability improvement and metallurgical performance tuning over the full operating life of installed circuits.

SaltX has reported successful pilot tests of its Electric Arc Calciner (EAC) on carbonate iron ore (siderite) from VA Erzberg in Austria, showing effective high‑temperature conversion of carbonate‑rich feed using electrical rather than fossil‑fuel heat. The EAC process targets decarbonisation of traditional calcination by electrifying the thermal step, which is central to siderite ore upgrading and other carbonate processing. For mine operators and plant designers, this points to potential retrofits or new-build plants where high-temperature kilns could be replaced or supplemented with grid- or renewables-powered electric calciners.

Network Rail will shut multiple Scottish rail sections over Christmas and New Year to deliver track renewals and infrastructure upgrades, with services replaced by buses and timetables heavily revised on affected routes. Works include heavy engineering on key main lines and junctions, where access is only possible during extended blockades, allowing continuous possession for track, signalling and structures interventions. Civil and permanent-way teams will need to manage winter working risks, tight possession windows and rapid handback to restore line speeds before the January commuter peak.

Completion of the final section of the A465 Heads of the Valleys dualling, delivering a continuous dual carriageway across one of Wales’ key east–west freight corridors, has triggered scrutiny of the Mutual Investment Model (MIM) used to fund it. Long rock cuttings, extensive retaining structures and complex junction works in steep former opencast and valley-side ground pushed construction risk and cost, testing whether the availability-based unitary charge under MIM can cope with major geotechnical uncertainty. For future Welsh trunk road schemes, designers and contractors will face tighter risk allocation and more pressure to quantify ground and programme risk up front.

Storms Amy and Benjamin have already flooded homes, closed key A-roads and rail links, and overwhelmed ageing culverts and combined sewers, exposing how far UK drainage and flood defences lag current rainfall intensities. Early-season events are overtopping river embankments and bypassing 1-in-100-year design standards in several catchments, forcing emergency pumping and temporary barriers in urban centres. For civil and geotechnical engineers, the message is tighter design margins, more storage and conveyance capacity, and accelerated retrofit of surface water systems before peak winter storms arrive.

Construction of the Walsall Energy Recovery Facility is progressing as contractors build the 40m-high reinforced concrete core that will form the structural spine of the waste-to-energy plant. The core demands complex temporary works, high-capacity formwork and careful sequencing to manage verticality, crane access and heavy reinforcement congestion. For civil and structural teams, the job centres on controlling thermal cracking in thick pours, maintaining tolerances over the full 40m height and coordinating M&E penetrations within the core walls.

Yorkshire Water has launched an £80M multi-supplier technical framework to support its AMP8 capital programme for 2025–2030, covering treatment works, trunk mains, sewers and associated civil assets. The framework will procure engineering design, technical consultancy, technical assurance and specialist support services across clean and wastewater networks, including hydraulic modelling, structural assessments and process optimisation. Consultants will be engaged early in project definition to standardise designs, manage whole-life asset performance and de-risk delivery across multiple concurrent schemes.

Construction has begun on a 3.4km power tunnel beneath the Dwyryd Estuary in Snowdonia, with Network Rail, National Grid and Hochtief collaborating to divert high‑voltage transmission cables underground and remove existing overhead lines. The tunnel will pass under operational railway infrastructure, requiring careful control of settlement, groundwater and vibration to protect track geometry and signalling assets. For geotechnical and civil teams, key issues include soft estuarine deposits, tidal influence on pore pressures, and long-term access for cable maintenance within a confined underground environment.

A £40M plan to regenerate Northfleet Harbourside with a new Ebbsfleet United FC stadium and thousands of riverside homes is facing strong objections over lead contamination and freight disruption on the Thames. Objectors warn that disturbing historic industrial fill could mobilise legacy lead in soils and sediments, while new residential blocks and matchday traffic could constrain wharf access and rail-connected aggregates and cement terminals. Planners will need robust ground investigation, remediation strategies and safeguarded freight corridors to avoid compromising both public health and critical construction materials supply.

The 19th-century Garmouth Viaduct over the River Spey in Moray, Scotland has collapsed, exposing a decade-long failure to act on a 2014 recommendation for a full structural survey. The former rail viaduct, now used as a pedestrian and cycle crossing, had already been subject to partial closures after previous flood damage and scour concerns. The incident raises immediate questions over inspection regimes, asset management of legacy wrought-iron and masonry structures, and how local authorities prioritise intrusive surveys for ageing river crossings.

Hastings Deering is using nearly 100 years of Caterpillar dealership experience plus advanced data analytics to run a “total asset” strategy that integrates repair, rebuild and planned maintenance across entire fleets. The approach combines condition monitoring, component life tracking and scheduled overhauls in central workshops with field service support to keep large haul trucks, loaders and dozers operating at target availability. For mine operators, the model shifts focus from individual machine fixes to life-cycle cost control and predictable uptime across the whole asset base.

Metso has launched a configurable grinding classification system built from pre-engineered modules that combine ball mills, hydrocyclones and slurry pumps into a single, integrated package. The modular plant is designed for rapid installation in greenfield or brownfield concentrators, with standardised skids, piping and instrumentation allowing capacity to be scaled by adding parallel grinding lines. For process engineers, the approach reduces front-end engineering hours and shortens commissioning time, while keeping equipment compatible with existing Metso mill linings, cyclones and process control platforms.

Thick, high‑grade copper intercepts and new mineralisation at Aeris Resources’ Tritton operation in central NSW are giving the producer a strong start to 2025, with drilling extending known lenses and opening additional underground targets. Recent holes have returned wide sulphide zones carrying elevated copper grades, strengthening the mine plan around existing Tritton and Budgery ore sources and supporting potential resource upgrades. For planners and geotechs, the results point to longer mine life, continued sublevel open stoping, and further investment in underground development and paste backfill.

Fortescue is accelerating its “Real Zero” strategy across Pilbara iron ore operations such as Christmas Creek, targeting zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions without offsets by 2030 through global partnerships on green haul trucks, renewable power and hydrogen. The miner is trialling battery-electric and hydrogen-powered haul fleets to replace diesel, and planning large-scale solar and wind integration with high-voltage transmission to its remote sites. For mine planners and process engineers, the shift implies redesign of pit haul profiles, power distribution, and maintenance regimes around high‑capacity electrified mobile equipment.

The Papua New Guinea Mining and Industrial Resources Conference and Exhibition (PNG Expo) in Port Moresby is positioning Australian suppliers to tap into PNG’s roughly $8 billion mining sector, centred on large-scale gold, copper and LNG-linked projects. Delegates are targeting contracts with operations such as Ok Tedi, Lihir and Porgera, where logistics constraints, high rainfall and complex geology drive demand for robust pit dewatering, slope stability monitoring and remote power solutions. Networking at venues like the Stanley Hotel is being used to broker partnerships on everything from modular processing plants to mine camp construction and maintenance.

Fortuna Mining is refocusing on West Africa to rebuild its 500,000 oz/y gold output, backing expansions at the Séguéla mine in Côte d’Ivoire and the Diamba Sud project in Senegal while targeting 100,000–200,000 oz/y assets with 10+ year mine lives. Séguéla, which poured first gold in 2023, has lifted contained reserves by 11%, doubled indicated resources and is expected to exceed 150,000 oz in 2025, with Lycopodium studying a plant throughput increase from ~1.7–1.75 Mt/y to 2–2.5 Mt/y. The company has about $400 million net cash for acquisitions, amid intense regional deal activity including Atlantic Group’s purchase of Barrick’s Tongon mine and competing bids for Predictive Discovery.

Li-FT Power is acquiring Australia’s Winsome Resources for about A$130.8 million ($86.8 million) in shares and taking 75% of the adjacent Galinée property from Azimut Exploration and SOQUEM, consolidating a large hard-rock lithium position in Quebec’s James Bay. The deal brings in Winsome’s 100%-owned Adina project, with 1.4 Mt at 1.14% Li₂O (indicated) and 16.5 Mt at 1.19% Li₂O (inferred), scoped in 2024 as a 20+ year operation producing 280,000 t/y of spodumene concentrate, capex $259 million and NPV₈ of $743 million. Li-FT plans a C$30 million placement for Adina–Galinée work, C$10 million for Yellowknife, and an ASX listing, while some analysts argue Winsome is being undervalued.

Westgold Resources will spin out its non-core Murchison gold assets into a new ASX-listed vehicle, Valiant Gold, targeting A$65–75 million at A$0.25 per share while retaining 44–48% equity. The demerger packages the Reedy’s and Comet brownfield projects, which hold 15.6 Mt at 2.4 g/t Au (1.2 Moz contained) and previously produced 820,000 oz at 3.8 g/t and 257,000 oz at 2.77 g/t respectively, plus several small underground mines in care and maintenance. Valiant will secure toll treatment via ore processing agreements at Westgold’s Cue and/or Meekatharra hubs (6 Mtpa installed capacity), backed by a A$3 million interest-free loan to accelerate restart studies and near-term production.

US mining enters 2026 under a suite of Trump executive orders (EO 14213, 14220, 14241, 14261 and 14272) directing agencies to cut permitting delays, open federal land and expand domestic processing, with impacts expected on exploration timelines and investor confidence in critical minerals. SME consultant Debra W. Struhsacker warns that more than 30 years of restrictive legislation and land-use limits mean recovery will be gradual, with litigation over NEPA reviews and the fate of the SPEED Act (HR 4776) key to real permitting gains. She flags severe rare earths dependence on China and a looming skills gap, noting only 14 US mining schools and urging passage of the Mining Schools Act of 2025 and renewed federal mineral research funding.

Northern Star Resources has ordered Sandvik Toro® TH663i underground trucks and Toro® LH621i and LH517i intelligent loaders for its Western Australian gold operations, with the fleet order booked in Q4 2025. Deliveries will start in Q1 2026 and run through 2027, supporting high‑tonnage, automated loading and haulage in deep underground stopes. The i-series machines are configured for Sandvik’s AutoMine® and OptiMine® platforms, signalling further roll-out of tele-remote and data-driven fleet management in Australian hard-rock mines.

Fortescue Ltd has agreed to acquire the remaining 64% of Alta Copper Corp it does not already own via a Canadian Plan of Arrangement, offering Alta shareholders C$1.40 per share in cash. The deal would give Fortescue full control of Alta’s copper portfolio, positioning the iron ore major to expand further into large-scale red metal projects. For engineers and project teams, this signals potential acceleration of feasibility, permitting and infrastructure planning across Alta’s development assets under Fortescue’s balance sheet and project delivery model.