Geomechanics.io

Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council has appointed Barnfield Construction as main contractor for an £8.5m conversion of the fire‑damaged, Grade II listed St John’s Church into a digital and cyber business centre. Designs by Manchester-based OMI Architects provide 9,500 sq ft of flexible workspace within the 239-year-old structure, linked to the planned Blackburn Skills Campus and opportunities from the National Cyber Force at Samlesbury Enterprise Zone. Enabling works start in March, main construction begins in summer, with completion targeted for early 2028.

Delays at the Building Safety Regulator’s Gateway 3 stage are linked by law firm Irwin Mitchell to 44 undecided schemes and 5,594 completed higher-risk residential units remaining unoccupied, with one case waiting 550 days against an eight‑week target. Of 158 Gateway 3 applications in 2023, 55 took more than three months for a decision, raising concerns over cashflow impacts on developers and handover timing for residents. The BSR disputes the interpretation, stating no new-build higher-risk building that passed Gateway 2 has yet applied for Gateway 3 and that current cases are mainly transitional legacy projects with significant safety issues.

Graham has secured a £286m contract to redevelop Manchester Metropolitan University’s Cambridge Halls, delivering 2,302 student bedrooms in two new multi‑storey blocks rising up to 30 storeys on the site of demolished 1990s accommodation. The Cartwright Pickard–designed scheme combines cluster flats, studios, ground‑floor commercial units and a community health centre fronting Cambridge Street. Targeting BREEAM Excellent with air source heat pumps, PV panels, low‑energy heat recovery ventilation and intelligent BMS, phase one is due in 2029 with final completion in 2030.

Women into Home Building is opening applications for its eighth fully funded three-week intake, combining one week of online training with two weeks of on-site placements in site management and new building inspector roles with NHBC. Since its 2023 launch by the Home Builders Federation and partner house-builders, over 150 women have completed introductory training, but only about one-third have secured industry jobs, against a backdrop of women making up just 15% of the construction workforce and 5% of site managers. Applications for May 2026 placements run from 16 February to 22 March via pathwayctm.com.

Two in five UK construction firms report a direct hit to their bottom line despite political promises of accelerated infrastructure delivery, exposing a gap between headline commitments and actual project flow. Contractors cite delayed notice-to-proceed on major road and rail schemes, stop–start funding cycles for schools and hospitals, and prolonged planning approvals as key drivers of margin erosion. For geotechnical and civil specialists, this means underutilised design and site teams, disrupted ground investigation programmes, and greater commercial risk when pricing long-lead works.

Autonomous battery-electric haul trucks deployed by EACON at Shougang Group’s Shuichang Iron Ore Mine have completed a full year of operation, delivering quantified reductions in both unit haulage cost and diesel-related CO₂ emissions versus conventional diesel fleets. The system integrates autonomous driving, battery swapping and centralised dispatch to manage multiple BEV trucks on steep open-pit ramps and long-distance waste hauls. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, the shift to BEVs changes ramp ventilation assumptions, traffic patterns and braking heat loads, affecting haul road design and pit wall interaction.

Sandvik Rock Processing has completed a full rebuild of a Sandvik BR3288i hydraulic breaker and BB8094R breaker boom for a major Ghanaian gold mine at its Kumasi technical workshop. The unit, installed at the run-of-mine grizzly, is a large-range breaker used for primary rock size reduction and clearing oversize at the crusher feed. Localised refurbishment capability in Kumasi cuts downtime and shipping delays for future overhauls, which is critical for maintaining ROM throughput and crusher utilisation on West African hard-rock gold operations.

Atlas Salt has expanded its strategic relationship with Sandvik Mining as part of an updated feasibility study for the Great Atlantic underground salt project near St George’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, building on a comprehensive non‑binding MOU signed in September 2024. The enlarged scope is expected to cover Sandvik’s input on underground mobile equipment fleets and automation-ready mining systems for large-scale room-and-pillar extraction. For engineers, the move signals early vendor integration into mine design, equipment selection and life-of-mine operating cost assumptions ahead of project sanctioning.

Weir’s Alrode facility in Gauteng has become the first plant globally dedicated solely to manufacturing ENDURON Elite banana screens, adding 1,600 m² of covered production space to support the new range. Concentrating production in South Africa signals longer-term localisation of high-performance screening technology, with implications for regional supply chains and aftermarket support for large vibrating screens in coal, iron ore and aggregate operations. For process engineers, this may shorten lead times for custom screen sizes and deck configurations while standardising critical components across Weir’s global footprint.

Tungsten West has appointed Duo Group as EPC contractor for a new-build crushing, screening and ore sorting plant at the Hemerdon tungsten-tin mine in Devon, and signed an agreement to deploy Gekko Systems’ In Line Pressure Jigs in the flowsheet. The project centres on upgrading run-of-mine ore through pre-concentration and sensor-based sorting ahead of jig-based gravity recovery, aiming to improve tungsten and tin yield from the existing open-pit resource. For process engineers, the move signals a flowsheet shift towards higher early-stage rejection of waste and lower downstream milling load.

The MINEXCHANGE 2026 SME Annual Conference & Expo in Salt Lake City will close next week with SME’s Signature Awards Event recognising more than 70 recipients across mining, metallurgy and exploration. Honours span technical excellence, health and safety, environmental stewardship and professional service, reinforcing SME’s role in setting practice benchmarks for US and international operations. For engineers and operators, the awards list often signals emerging leaders, influential research directions and projects likely to shape upcoming guidance and conference content.

ESCO’s ESCO division has launched the Nexsys Ripper System for Cat D11 dozers, targeting high-load ripping in mining, aggregate and heavy construction applications. The system uses premium alloy steels and a redesigned shank–tooth interface to improve penetration and wear life under highly abrasive conditions typical of large open pits and quarries. Faster tooth changes and reduced unplanned change-outs are aimed at increasing dozer utilisation on primary ripping benches and hard overburden, with direct implications for drill-and-blast requirements and fleet productivity.

The Papua New Guinea Industrial and Mining Exhibition and Conference will return to Port Moresby in July, bringing together mine operators, EPC contractors and OEM suppliers focused on PNG’s gold, copper and LNG-linked projects. Exhibitors typically span underground fleet, pit dewatering, tailings and paste-fill systems, explosives, and remote power solutions suited to PNG’s high-rainfall, steep-slope terrain and logistics constraints. For geotechnical and mining engineers, the event is a key venue to source equipment and services for haul road construction, slope stabilisation, camp infrastructure and port expansions in a challenging tropical environment.

Weir is promoting its Enduron EP350 cone crusher as a long-life, high-availability solution for mine crushing circuits, pairing the machine with engineered wear parts and process optimisation services. The company focuses on matching crusher geometry, liner design and metallurgy to specific ore characteristics, and uses condition monitoring and remote support to stabilise throughput and reduce unplanned downtime. For geotechnical and plant engineers, the message is tighter integration of equipment design, wear management and circuit control rather than standalone crusher selection.

Atlas Copco Rental Australia’s DrillAir Y1260 compressor is being deployed as a single air source from drill pad to processing plant, replacing multiple smaller units across blasthole drilling, dewatering and plant air services. The high-pressure, high-flow package is containerised for rapid relocation in-pit and around fixed infrastructure, with integrated fuel management and remote monitoring to optimise load profiles. For mine operators, the approach concentrates maintenance on one large unit, simplifies air distribution design and can cut diesel consumption and unplanned downtime across the pit-to-plant circuit.

Dewatering design for a deep well system is modelled in GeoStudio using SEEP/W to simulate transient drawdown and quantify inflow to an excavation, with wells arranged around the perimeter and pumped to lower the groundwater table below formation level. The example compares different pumping rates and well spacings, showing effects on pore water pressures, hydraulic gradients and potential instability in adjacent slopes and structures. For practitioners, it illustrates how to test alternative layouts and pumping schedules numerically before committing to well installation on site.

Kumba Iron Ore is investing ZAR11.2 billion (about US$600 million) to retrofit ultra-high-dense-media-separation (UHDMS) technology into the existing DMS plant at its Sishen mine in South Africa’s Northern Cape. The UHDMS circuit is designed to treat lower-grade ore and waste material at higher cut densities than conventional DMS, materially lifting product quality and overall yield. For process and plant engineers, the project signals a shift towards more intensive beneficiation to extend Sishen’s life of mine and improve margins without new pit development.

Restoration of Cornwallis’ flood-damaged drainage network and reconstruction of the missing section of Cornwallis Road in New South Wales has been completed by Hawkesbury City Council in partnership with NSW Public Works. Works included rebuilding the road and repairing the levee system to protect low-lying, flood‑prone properties along this corridor on the Hawkesbury floodplain. For geotechnical and civil teams, the project signals renewed design focus on drainage capacity and levee robustness after recent extreme flood events in the region.

Construction of the 7.5‑kilometre M12 Motorway dual carriageway at Badgerys Creek is progressing around the Central Interchange, which will link the M7 and The Northern Road directly to Western Sydney International (Nancy‑Bird Walton) Airport. The interchange comprises multiple bridge structures, elevated ramps and extensive retaining walls, with precast concrete elements supplied and coordinated by National Precast members to manage complex geometry and staging. For geotechnical and civil teams, the works demand careful interface of precast foundations, approach embankments and retaining systems with existing motorway corridors and airport access constraints.

The second stage of the Main South Road Duplication Project has opened to traffic in Adelaide, doubling carriageway capacity between Aldinga and Sellicks Beach and removing a key bottleneck on the Fleurieu Peninsula corridor. Delivered by the Fleurieu Connections Alliance, led by CPB Contractors, the works convert this section of Main South Road from a single to dual carriageway, with new intersections and median separation improving traffic flow and crash risk performance. For civil and pavement engineers, the duplication sets the geometric and structural standard for future upgrades further south.

Transport for London has awarded M Group a £119M, five-year contract to maintain its portfolio of bridges and civil structures, with an option to extend the deal by a further three years. The framework will cover inspection, repair and strengthening of key assets across London’s strategic road and rail network, where many structures date from pre-motorway or early Underground expansion eras. Contractors and consultants can expect demand for complex access solutions, night-time possessions and staged works to keep high-traffic routes operational during interventions.

MPs on Parliament’s transport select committee are questioning whether the Railways Bill’s proposed Passengers’ Council will have any real enforcement powers to deliver a fully accessible national rail network. Concerns centre on the council’s ability to compel infrastructure managers and train operators to retrofit step-free access, tactile paving and compliant boarding interfaces across thousands of stations and platforms. For designers and asset owners, the outcome will influence how strongly accessibility standards are mandated in future station upgrades, platform works and rolling stock procurement.

Agnico Eagle Mines posted record year-end 2025 gold reserves of 55.4 million oz (1.33 billion tonnes at 1.30 g/t) and a 135% jump in net income to $4.46 billion, lifting its quarterly dividend to $0.45 per share. Measured and indicated resources rose to 47.1 million oz and inferred resources to 41.8 million oz, supported by the Marban deposit at Malartic and 1.4 million metres of core drilling from an average 120 diamond rigs. CEO Ammar Al‑Joundi targets a 20–30% production increase to over 4 million oz/year by the early 2030s, driven by Detour Lake underground, Canadian Malartic, Upper Beaver and Hope Bay.

NI 43-101’s standardised technical reports and qualified person requirements stabilised disclosure after Bre-X, but Erik Groves, corporate strategy and in-house counsel at Morgan Companies, argues they now mask chronic diluters whose projects never advance despite repeated financings and high G&A. With Canadian National Policy 51-201 still warning against “sporadic” online rumour correction on chat rooms and bulletin boards, legal advice often keeps issuers off X, YouTube and Reddit while retail investors crowdsource geology and drill-interval analysis. Groves calls for a defined safe harbour allowing video documentation of fieldwork, plain-language geological reasoning and public misinformation correction, without pre-releasing material results or implying unsupported resources.