Geomechanics.io

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.

Copper’s surge above $11,000/t on the LME, including a record $11,540/t print, is unlikely to persist, with Goldman Sachs analysts led by Aurelia Waltham projecting 2025 prices constrained to a $10,000–$11,000/t range and a modest 2026 surplus of about 160,000 t. The bank sees no structural global shortage before at least 2029, noting 2025 demand remains roughly 500,000 t below supply and warning that Chinese consumption could fall nearly 8% year-on-year in Q4. Mercuria’s Kostas Bintas, by contrast, flags “extreme” market dislocations from US-bound flows that could leave non-US markets short of copper cathodes.

Anglo Asian Mining has completed its first copper concentrate sale from the new Demirli mine in Karabakh to Trafigura, delivering 2,055 wet tonnes containing 351 tonnes of copper metal under a contract that includes a $25 million prepayment facility. The shipment, expected to generate $3.6 million in revenue before the Azerbaijani state’s share, was handled via a newly established logistics centre near Ganja on the Azerbaijan–Georgia highway to avoid restricted access into Karabakh. Demirli, commissioned in July, is forecast to produce 4,000 tonnes of copper concentrate in 2025, rising to 15,000 tonnes from 2026.

Australia’s mining veteran Jake Klein warns the country is “relying on luck rather than good strategy”, citing Lynas Rare Earths’ decision to build its main processing plant in Malaysia after a 10-year tax holiday and gas-to-site offer, while Australian governments provided no comparable support. He argues Australia forfeited early leadership in rare earths, with Mt Weld ore still shipped offshore and key processing IP now based in Malaysia, and notes Lynas’ newer cracking plant in Kalgoorlie is hampered by unreliable power. Klein links short three‑year federal election cycles, shrinking university mining programmes and high labour and power costs to declining competitiveness, urging long-term policy, investment in mining education and technology, and aggressive adoption of AI under the new National AI Plan to lift productivity.

Larvotto Resources has installed an ECORE automated drill core scanner at its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales, making it the only mine site in Australia with laser ablation–atomic emission spectroscopy core scanning in near real time. The Elemission Inc. system generates quantitative multi-element and mineral maps immediately after drilling, enabling rapid identification of mineralised zones, alteration halos and textural controls to refine geological logging, sampling and metallurgical testwork. Hillgrove is now near production, with first output targeted for Q2 next year and a stated aim to supply up to 7% of global antimony demand.

CERN Council has declared the CHF15bn Future Circular Collider technically feasible, clearing a major hurdle for a 90.7km circumference tunnel with access shafts between 180m and 400m deep across eight surface sites, seven in France and one in Switzerland. The feasibility review drew on around 1,500 experts from 162 institutes in 38 countries, with no technical “showstoppers” identified so far. Recommendations under the European Strategy for Particle Physics will be finalised by May 2026, with a construction decision expected around 2028, signalling a potential decade-scale tunnelling and underground works programme.

Breakthrough of Herrenknecht Single Shield TBMs “Lilia” and “Ida” in Brenner Base Tunnel section H41 Sill Gorge–Pfons marks completion of two 10.25 m diameter, 4,550 kW drives totalling over 16.5 km of twin main tunnels excavated and segmentally lined since mid‑2023. The 2,400‑tonne, 160 m long machines, operated by ARGE H41 (Implenia, Webuild, CSC), bring Herrenknecht’s driven length under the Brenner towards 90 km, with two 10.33 m Double Shield TBMs still advancing on lot H53. Herrenknecht is also supplying segment formwork systems, VMT navigation and ring sequencing, and multi‑kilometre H+E conveyor belts, consolidating a full-process mechanised delivery model.

TAC’s 2025 awards at the Vancouver workshop named the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension Advance Tunnel Contract 1 as Canadian Project of the Year over C$300m and the Annacis Island Wastewater Treatment Plant Outfall Project as Project of the Year under C$300m, recognising major urban transit and deep outfall tunnelling works. The Canadian Innovation Initiative went to dynamic adaptative innovation on the Fairbank Silverthorn Tunnel Project, signalling growing interest in real‑time design and construction optimisation. Individual awards went to Young Tunneller Jonathan D Aubertin, Tunneller of the Year Curtis John Bahten, and Lifetime Achievement recipient Frank Huber.

TBM Mullai has broken through into Kolathur Station North shaft after a 246 m drive from Kolathur Ramp, negotiating just 1.8 m overburden, a -3.8% gradient and ground protection works beneath heavy traffic. Simultaneously, TBM Kurinji has been launched from Kolathur South shaft to excavate a 1,060 m tunnel to Srinivasa Nagar station through Grade 4–5 rock and a 230 m curve, a first in India for a same-station launch and breakthrough. The works form part of Chennai Metro Phase 2 Corridor 5, a 47 km line with 5.8 km underground and 41.2 km elevated, using four TBMs.

Tunnelling for Delhi Metro’s Janakpuri West–RK Ashram Marg extension has completed the downline bore between Pulbangash and Sadar Bazar directly beneath the operational Red Line viaduct, which carries about 700,000 passengers daily. To protect the viaduct’s open foundations and balanced cantilever spans without halting traffic, engineers executed tube a manchette grouting through 180 TAM boreholes and installed dense instrumentation including surface settlement markers, deep inclinometers, pier tilt meters, building settlement points and load cells. Continuous real-time monitoring by dedicated staff kept ground movement, pier behaviour and building responses within permissible limits, and the upline tunnel is now being driven under the same regime.

Terratec’s T83B open TBM on the Mumbai water tunnel project achieved 752m advance in July 2025, claimed as a national record for a water tunnel drive using a single rail track and two mining locomotives. The cutterhead configuration, integrated ground support systems and operational flexibility have matched the alignment’s geology, sustaining high penetration and consistent progress. Productivity gains also stem from tightly planned logistics and cross‑shift co‑ordination, backed by Terratec field service engineers embedded with the contractor’s tunnelling team.

President Marcos has inaugurated Tunnel No. 5 in Bulacan, a new conveyance tunnel feeding the Umiray–Angat–Ipo–La Mesa system that supplies almost 90% of water to nearly 20 million people in Metro Manila, Bulacan, and parts of Cavite and Rizal. The tunnel adds 1.6 billion litres per day of capacity, lifting system throughput from about 6 billion to almost 8 billion litres per day from Angat Dam. Marcos credited concessionaires Maynilad and Manila Water and project teams at the Bigte Basin site in Norzagaray.