Geomechanics.io

Preston Tram Bridge, a £8m, 130‑metre active‑travel crossing over the River Ribble built by Eric Wright Civil Engineering, has reopened seven years after the original structure was closed in 2019 for serious safety concerns. The new bridge reconnects walking and cycling routes between Preston and South Ribble, restoring a key commuter and leisure link that had been severed for nearly a decade. Local authorities and Active Travel England see the scheme as a flagship example of partnership delivery for urban active‑mode infrastructure.

Housing planning applications processed by TerraQuest reached their highest quarterly level since 2022 in Q1 2026, signalling a rebound in the UK residential pipeline that will feed demand for roads, utilities and groundworks. Over the same period, Real Estate:UK and CoStar Group reported a sharp slowdown in overseas investment into UK commercial property, pointing to weaker funding for new office, logistics and mixed-use schemes. Civil and geotechnical contractors may see more volume from housing-led schemes while facing tighter pipelines in commercial sectors.

BNP Paribas Asset Management has appointed McLaren Construction as lead contractor for the redevelopment of the former BBC Elstree site into the new Fairbanks Studios complex. Specialist firms Harrington Builders, Aarsleff, SCWS, Halsall and Northern Cladding have been engaged, signalling a package likely to combine heavy civils, deep foundations and large-span cladding systems typical of modern studio stages. The scheme will interest geotechnical and structural teams watching how a legacy broadcast site is reconfigured for high-spec film and TV production infrastructure.

National Highways will spend more than £50M on the next phase of “essential” and “extensive” structural repairs to a major M5 road bridge in North Somerset, targeting long-term durability on this key strategic route. Works are expected to focus on concrete repair, waterproofing, bearing replacement and joint renewal to address ageing elements under high traffic and de-icing salt exposure. Contractors will need to manage complex staging and traffic management on a live motorway, with implications for night-time possessions, lane closures and construction sequencing.

Final-phase repairs have started on the Grade I-listed Menai Suspension Bridge on the A55 Anglesey extension, two years before the 30-year PFI concession ends, using a “smart” traffic management solution to keep the crossing largely open. Engineers are sequencing deck and hanger works to avoid full closures, relying on real-time monitoring and short, off-peak lane restrictions instead of long-duration shutdowns. The approach reduces diversion of HGVs onto local roads and offers a template for maintaining ageing long-span suspension bridges with constrained redundancy.

The Climate Change Committee is for the first time proposing a national blueprint of climate adaptation targets to manage UK climate risks, moving beyond the current focus on net zero mitigation. Draft proposals point to sector‑specific metrics for infrastructure, such as maximum tolerable flood risk for critical assets, heat‑resilience standards for rail and highways, and performance thresholds for drainage and coastal defences under UKCP18 scenarios. Civil and geotechnical engineers should expect future investment cases and design codes to be benchmarked explicitly against these quantified adaptation targets.

Taseko Mines plans to rebrand as Trekor Metals, with shareholders voting on 24 June in Vancouver, as it pivots to a North American copper platform built around the Gibraltar, Florence Copper and New Prosperity assets. Florence Copper in Arizona is ramping up after its SX/EW plant started in February, targeting 85 million lb/year over 22 years at forecast operating costs of US$1.11/lb, having produced 1.5 million lb of cathode in Q1 2026 with five drill rigs active. Gibraltar, now 100% owned, delivered 30 million lb of copper and 717,000 lb of molybdenum in Q1 at total costs of US$2.63/lb on 0.25% Cu grades.

Canadian company ARLYX Technologies has unveiled what it calls the first complete, fully electric autonomous material-handling system purpose-built for underground mines, developed over two years in Quebec and trialled under production conditions at a Tier 1 operation. The package integrates battery-electric haul units with autonomous navigation and loading, targeting fully driverless tramming and transfer between drawpoints, orepasses and crushers. A public technology demonstration is scheduled at the Mining Transformed event from 25–27 May 2026, giving operators a chance to assess retrofit potential and infrastructure requirements.

Technology trials in mining are being reframed from simple proof of concept (PoC) exercises – which only test whether a tool works technically, such as an AI drill-optimisation algorithm or a new fleet-management platform – to proof of value (PoV) programmes that quantify impacts on KPIs like cost per tonne, unplanned downtime, and recovery. PoV design typically hard-wires baselines, control groups, and production-scale timeframes into trials, rather than short, isolated pilots on a single loader or crusher line. For engineers, the shift means specifying measurable value hypotheses up front and integrating trials with existing dispatch, SCADA, and planning systems.

RadiXplore is using its Xplor platform to mine decades of underused historical exploration data, aiming to improve discovery rates as new greenfield finds become scarcer and drilling costs rise. Co-founders Russel Menezes and Teryne Young are applying machine learning and pattern-recognition workflows to legacy geochemical assays, drill logs and geophysical surveys to re‑rank targets without commissioning new campaigns. For geologists and explorers, the approach could shift budgets from broad regional drilling to data-driven infill and re-interpretation of existing tenements.

Mineral Resources and Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium have approved a A$490 million brownfield expansion at the Mt Marion lithium operation in Western Australia, adding an underground mine and new flotation plant to increase recoveries and throughput. The final investment decision covers transitioning from a purely open-pit operation to a combined open-pit/underground layout, with flotation enabling higher-grade concentrate production from existing ore types. The partners expect the upgrade to materially extend Mt Marion’s mine life by decades, with implications for long-term tailings, water balance and underground geotechnical design.

NEXT Cooling South Africa has secured a contract to design and supply a four-cell fibre reinforced polyester (FRP) condenser cooling tower for a Tanzanian gold mine, forming part of a central refrigeration plant expansion led by BBE Group. The package includes all cooling tower internals, including process piping, high-surface-area fill and drift eliminators, indicating a fully engineered thermal and hydraulic solution rather than a shell-only supply. For mine operators, the FRP construction points to reduced corrosion risk and lower structural weight compared with conventional steel or concrete towers, easing installation and long-term maintenance.

Elizabeth Gaines will resign as executive director of Fortescue after 13 years with the iron ore major, including four years as chief executive officer. During her CEO tenure she oversaw the ramp-up of the 30–40Mtpa Eliwana mine and rail project in the Pilbara and advanced the 22Mtpa Iron Bridge magnetite project towards production. Her departure signals further leadership transition as Fortescue pursues its green hydrogen and decarbonisation strategy alongside its core hematite export business.

Leaked internal records show BHP has paused or deferred more than $1.7 billion of Pilbara decarbonisation projects, including a board‑approved $400 million solar‑and‑battery plant at Jimblebar and a $1.3 billion regional renewables package to power electric haul trucks and trains, with no major spend planned before 2031. The documents warn that slow emissions cuts in Pilbara, which generates $14.4 billion pre‑tax profit and over one‑third of BHP’s Australian emissions, threaten its “licence to operate”. BHP has instead ordered 62 new diesel trucks for Jimblebar, extending diesel reliance into the late 2030s, while rival Fortescue pushes ahead with electrification.

Rwanda-backed M23 rebels controlling coltan-rich Rubaya in eastern DRC are seeking to sell tantalum, tin and tungsten directly to the United States, pitching themselves to the Trump administration as a strategic mineral supplier. Rubaya’s mines, under M23 control since April 2024, produce about 15% of global coltan and are estimated by Global Witness to generate roughly $800,000 per month for the group. Any US engagement would collide with existing DRC–US strategic partnership commitments, sanctions on Rwanda’s army, and conflict-mineral certification regimes.

China is projected by Wood Mackenzie to control 39% of global lithium production by 2030 as Chinese capital backs projects such as Huayou Cobalt’s proposed acquisition of Atlantic Lithium and Hainan Mining’s investment in Kodal Minerals’ Bougouni project in Mali. Australia’s share of extraction is forecast to fall from 43% in 2020 to 25% by 2030 while Africa rises to about 13%, with most new African capacity financed from China. Europe is strengthening downstream control via refining and battery plants, including Vulcan Energy in Germany and Sibanye-Stillwater’s Keliber project in Finland, even as North American projects lag.

China’s rare earth dominance is set to “stay firmly in place”, with BMI noting it still controls about 60% of global mined output and almost all processing capacity, while export-controlled shipments of yttrium, dysprosium and terbium to the US remain at just 42%, 41% and 49% of pre-restriction volumes. Yttrium prices have surged 15-fold, disrupting turbine blade thermal barrier coatings and semiconductor insulation supply chains and keeping aerospace OEMs and chip fabs exposed to Chinese licensing decisions. Washington is responding with a $400 million investment into MP Materials and $1.6 billion for USA Rare Earth’s Texas mine-and-processing project, plus targeted partnerships in Australia, Canada, Greenland, Angola, Mozambique, Brazil and Saudi Arabia.

Fortescue has started building the 690MW Turner River solar farm in the Pilbara and a 650MWh BESS at its Cloudbreak mine, completing the solar component of its Real Zero plan alongside existing 440MW Solomon Airport, 190MW Cloudbreak and 100MW North Star Junction plants for a combined 1.4GW. Turner River will install over 1 million panels by 2028, while the Cloudbreak BESS will deliver 74MW for about eight hours via 124 battery units, backed by a 133MW Nullagine wind farm and more than 480 km of high‑voltage transmission, extending to 620 km. For mine operators, Fortescue’s parallel fleet electrification—16 electric excavators in service, a 6MW fast charger capable of fully charging a haul truck in ~30 minutes, and incoming battery electric haul trucks and ancillary XCMG equipment—signals rapid scaling of high‑power electrical infrastructure at remote iron ore sites.

Blue Lagoon Resources has declared commercial production at its 100%-owned Dome Mountain gold-silver project in northwest British Columbia after sustaining underground mining rates above 100 tonnes per day for over 30 consecutive days, within a permit allowing up to 55,000 tonnes per year. The company is targeting a steady-state output of 150 tonnes per day as it advances the Boulder Vein system and seeks permits to mine below the 1290 m level and into the nearby Argillite Vein. Offtake partner Ocean Partners Holdings will invest C$3 million in Blue Lagoon equity at C$0.90 per share, with no warrant coverage.

Meiteng Technology’s full-size intelligent coal dry separation plant in Mongolia has run stably since October 2025, using its proprietary DCP Full-Size Coal Dry Separation Dream Plant system under harsh continental climate conditions. The installation applies fully dry, sensor-based coal separation without process water, reducing reliance on traditional dense medium circuits and associated tailings dams. For mine operators in arid or freezing regions, the project signals growing viability of large-scale dry beneficiation where water supply, freezing pipelines and slurry management constrain conventional plants.

Construction has commenced on Fortescue’s 690 MW Turner River solar farm in the Pilbara and a 650 MWh BYD-based BESS at Cloudbreak, the final major assets in its Real Zero decarbonisation plan for iron ore operations. The utility-scale PV and storage will feed Fortescue’s integrated Pilbara Energy Connect network, designed to displace large diesel and gas loads across multiple mines. For mine planners and electrical engineers, the build-out signals rapid scaling of high-penetration renewables and grid-forming storage in remote, weak-grid conditions.

Victoria’s $21.6 billion North East Link has passed a key tunnelling milestone, with the first of two tunnel boring machines reaching 1 kilometre of excavation on the twin 6.5‑kilometre road tunnels between Watsonia and Bulleen. The project also includes major capacity and geometry upgrades to the Eastern Freeway and M80 Ring Road, integrating the new tunnels into Melbourne’s orbital network. For geotechnical and civil teams, sustained TBM advance over this length signals stable ground conditions and effective segmental lining and spoil management strategies so far.

Meeka Metals has started ore development at the high-grade Judy North orebody within the Andy Well underground mine in Western Australia, with early development faces showing visible gold and strong grades. Judy North, previously unmined, contains an initial resource of 96,000 ounces at 5.4 grams per tonne gold and has been accessed from existing Andy Well underground infrastructure. The move signals a shift from resource definition to production development, with potential to quickly add higher-grade stopes into the mine schedule.

Victory Metals has secured acceptance into the US Defense Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC), giving its North Stanmore rare earths project near Cue in Western Australia direct visibility to US defence procurement and R&D programmes. The clay-hosted project is targeting magnet rare earths such as neodymium and praseodymium, positioning it as a potential non-Chinese supply option for permanent magnets used in missiles, radars and electric drives. For geotechnical and mining teams, DIBC status signals likely pressure to accelerate resource definition, metallurgical testwork on clay processing, and ESG-compliant mine design.