Geomechanics.io

Fortescue has started building a 690‑megawatt solar farm at Turner River in the Pilbara and a 650‑megawatt‑hour battery energy storage system at its Cloudbreak iron ore operations, advancing its Real Zero decarbonisation strategy. The assets form part of the Pilbara Green Grid, an integrated renewables and transmission network intended to displace gas and diesel generation across multiple mine sites. For engineers, the scale of the PV and BESS installations signals future demand for high‑capacity grid connections, foundation design in cyclonic conditions, and mine‑site load management integration.

Forrestania Resources has agreed to acquire 100 per cent of Midas Minerals’ Newington gold project in Western Australia, securing a package of granted mining and exploration tenements in a historically high-yield gold district. The transaction consolidates Forrestania’s Western Australian gold footprint around Newington, giving it full control over both existing mining leases and surrounding exploration ground. For geologists and mine planners, the deal creates a larger, contiguous tenure position that can support district-scale resource definition and staged development drilling.

Stillwater Critical Minerals is advancing its Stillwater West project in Montana with new rhodium assays from eight holes in a 3,472-metre 2025 drill campaign at Chrome Mountain and Iron Mountain feeding an updated resource estimate due next month. The current 2023 inferred resource stands at 255 million tonnes at 0.2% nickel-equivalent cut-off, containing 1.64 billion lb nickel-copper-cobalt, 3.81 million oz palladium-platinum-rhodium-gold, 115,000 oz rhodium and 2.3 billion lb chromium in a Platreef-style, bulk-tonnage setting. Backed by Glencore’s 15% stake and more than 40,000 metres of drilling support, the company is funded for its largest drill programme yet and planning a first PEA later this year.

CRCHI’s first mining tunnel boring machine has begun underground cutting at NFCA’s Chambishi copper mine in Zambia’s Copperbelt, with initial rotation of the cutterhead starting on 13 May. Developed in Changsha, Hunan, by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corporation, the TBM marks the debut of a China-designed unit specifically for mining applications rather than civil tunnelling. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, successful performance at Chambishi could open wider use of TBMs for long ore drives and access tunnels in hard-rock African operations.

Fortescue has installed its first production-series Fortescue Zero battery-electric power system into a Liebherr T 264, a 240 t class haul truck, at Liebherr’s mining equipment proving grounds near Newport News, Virginia. The integration of the full battery system into the diesel-designed T 264 chassis marks a key step towards OEM-agnostic retrofits of large mining trucks, enabling mine operators to trial high-capacity battery haulage on existing fleets. Engineers will now focus on duty-cycle validation, thermal management and charging interface performance under proving-ground conditions.

Marr has installed 121t roof trusses for the Unit 2 turbine hall at EDF’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, using heavy-lift equipment to position the long-span steel members in a confined site. The timelapse footage shows sequential placement of the trusses over the turbine hall footprint, a critical step in closing the building envelope ahead of heavy mechanical and electrical fit-out. For civil and structural teams, the operation illustrates logistics and lift planning for multi-hundred-tonne steelwork on a congested nuclear construction platform.

Jacobs has been appointed by Great British Energy – Nuclear to deliver environmental consultancy and baselining at the Oldbury site in Gloucestershire, earmarked as a potential location for a new nuclear power station. The work will characterise existing ground, groundwater, ecological and radiological conditions to support future nuclear site licensing, environmental permits and design optioneering. Early baselining data will be critical for later geotechnical investigations, foundation design, flood and coastal risk assessments, and long-term monitoring strategies if the project proceeds.

National Highways has lodged a High Court breach of contract claim against WSP over the consultancy’s role as lead advisor on its roadmap to net zero for the strategic road network. The dispute centres on advisory work underpinning National Highways’ decarbonisation strategy, which covers construction materials, maintenance regimes and operational emissions across England’s motorways and major A-roads. Any adverse ruling or settlement could reshape how UK infrastructure clients scope, procure and manage consultancy input on carbon baselining, lifecycle assessments and compliance with government net zero targets.

Potential “symbiotic” energy resilience relationships between data centres and airports are being explored, as both require N+1 or higher redundancy, dual grid feeds and on-site backup generation to keep 24/7 operations running. An airports strategy expert suggests co-locating hyperscale data halls with major hubs could justify shared high-voltage substations, large-scale battery storage and potentially hydrogen-ready CHP plant sized for peak aviation and IT loads. However, the expert warns that current demand projections for data centres may be a bubble, risking stranded electrical and civil infrastructure if growth stalls.

Regulation giving Parliament, rather than the courts, final authority to approve large low‑carbon energy schemes has been unveiled by chancellor Rachel Reeves, sharply narrowing the grounds for judicial review. The change is expected to accelerate nationally significant infrastructure projects such as offshore wind farms, grid reinforcement corridors and carbon capture clusters, where planning and consent can currently add years to programme schedules. Developers and designers will need to front‑load environmental impact assessments, land rights strategies and stakeholder engagement, as legal challenge windows and procedural arguments are curtailed.

Escalating extreme rainfall and glacial melt are driving more frequent floods and landslides in Nepal’s Himalayan districts, with Karnali Province’s steep, highly fractured slopes and narrow river valleys particularly exposed. Recent events include debris flows cutting off road access to remote settlements and riverbank erosion undermining gabion walls and informal river training works along the Karnali and Bheri rivers. Engineers are being pushed towards slope stabilisation with bioengineering, improved drainage, and relocation or elevation of critical infrastructure away from active channels and unstable colluvium.

Testing of XCMG’s two super large battery electric prototypes for Fortescue – the XC9260BEWL wheel loader and XC9260BEWD wheel dozer – is continuing at the OEM’s Xuzhou proving grounds in China following their official unveiling in February 2026. The ultra-class units are undergoing performance and durability trials under load and duty cycles representative of Pilbara iron ore operations before being shipped to Western Australia. Results will inform battery pack configuration, thermal management and charging strategies for deployment in high-temperature, high-dust mine environments.

Dyno Nobel and TesMan have formed a strategic partnership to combine commercial explosives expertise with underground mining robotics and product development. The collaboration targets automation of hazardous tasks around charging, blasting and post-blast inspection in confined headings, aiming to keep personnel further from faces while maintaining or improving cycle times. For mine operators, the move signals more integrated blast systems where detonator timing, explosive loading and robotic deployment can be engineered as a single package rather than separate technologies.

Americas Gold and Silver will issue 7.96 million shares at $5.57 each to Sprott Mining to cancel the remaining 592,000 oz silver delivery under the Galena complex stream, removing about $45 million in future variable debt and associated derivative earnings volatility. The move increases Sprott Mining’s equity stake to roughly 15% while freeing Galena’s multi-year turnaround—centred on long-hole stoping, fleet upgrades and shaft improvements—from encumbrances as it targets 3.2–3.6 million oz silver output in 2026. Galena’s role as the largest active US antimony producer and the planned integration of the nearby Crescent mine’s 22.9 million oz historical silver resources remain central to the asset strategy.

BHP must, under a revised 78‑page Olympic Dam indenture agreement tabled in the South Australian parliament, assess within two years whether rare earths and other critical or strategic minerals such as neodymium and praseodymium can be commercially recovered from current waste streams. If BHP deems extraction technically or economically unviable, third parties must be given an opportunity to commercialise these minerals, while the framework also enables consideration of a A$4 billion copper refinery expansion and up to A$12.7 billion in further mine and concentrator upgrades by 2032. The pact additionally requires BHP to submit by May 2031 a plan to cease Great Artesian Basin groundwater extraction by May 2036, with a Port Augusta seawater desalination scheme being advanced to support a potential lift in South Australian copper output towards 650,000 tonnes per year by the mid‑2030s.

McEwen has already received US$58.2 million in dividends from the San José gold-silver mine in Argentina, above its full-year US$40–50 million target, after a further US$49.4 million payment from 51% operator Hochschild Mining. The stronger balance sheet – including US$56.5 million cash, US$13.5 million in marketable securities and US$457 million invested in McEwen Copper – is expected to let the company fund growth with limited equity issuance. Management is targeting 250,000–300,000 gold-equivalent ounces per year by 2030, with San José contributing 59,000–64,000 GEOs in 2026 and new output from the Stock mine (H2 2026) and El Gallo (mid-2027).

Canadian steel exports to the US have fallen to roughly one-third of pre-tariff values, with PwC Canada’s Gemma Stanton-Hagan estimating monthly steel revenues are about C$500 million lower than before the duties, leaving the sector under deeper and longer pressure than aluminium. Ottawa’s response centres on a C$1‑billion loan facility to address liquidity and a C$500‑million regional tariff response initiative to push diversification, which she characterises as a short-term stopgap. With 85–90% of Canadian steel exports historically bound for the US and global oversupply limiting alternative markets, producers are reassessing investment while policymakers weigh risks to domestic supply for housing, transport, energy and defence projects.

MAX Power Mining has secured C$25 million from Eric Sprott via a private placement of 12.5 million units at C$2.00, each with a warrant at C$2.75, to accelerate drilling at its Lawson natural hydrogen system in Saskatchewan’s 475 km-long Genesis Trend. The company has selected three initial drill targets using 3D seismic to pinpoint structurally optimal zones for natural hydrogen and helium flow, volume and concentration, and will run a 2D seismic programme along the trend to refine additional prospects. For geoscientists and drilling engineers, the work aims to validate what MAX Power calls the world’s first large-scale commercial natural hydrogen discovery.

A Chilean environmental court has annulled the permit for Collahuasi’s $3.2 billion desalination plant, forcing a reassessment of the seawater system that pumps desalinated water nearly 200 km from the Pacific coast to the 4,600‑metre‑elevation mine, which produced over 404,000 tonnes of copper in 2025. The decision affects an expansion intended to add 20 years of mine life and cut reliance on continental water, even though contractor Techint completed the pumping system in April. Industry leaders, including Chilean Mining Chamber president Manuel Viera, cite the case as evidence of a “cursed” regime where a single project can need 500+ permits, raising schedule and cost risk for large‑scale desalination and water‑supply infrastructure.

Mineral Mining Services (MMS) has secured a contract expansion with Tennant Mines at the Nobles project in Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, extending its work into the Juno and Golden Forty box cuts plus the Golden Kangaroo area at the historic goldfield. The deal materially increases MMS’s open-cut mining scope, consolidating multiple adjacent pits under a single contractor. Geotechnical teams will need to manage legacy workings and variable ground conditions typical of Tennant Creek’s narrow, high-grade gold lodes as MMS deepens and widens existing box cuts.

Sandvik Mining has launched a significantly upgraded Toro LH208L low-profile loader for 1.8 m headroom operations, pairing a high payload-to-weight ratio with an improved powertrain and a new Stage V diesel engine for lower emissions. The redesign targets higher productivity and reduced cost-per-tonne in narrow, low-seam stopes where conventional 2 m-class LHDs struggle with clearance and manoeuvrability. Added safety and operator comfort features are aimed at better ergonomics and reduced exposure in constrained underground environments.

Pilar Gold Inc has selected Resemin and Sotreq as strategic equipment partners to supply a new underground fleet for the restart and modernisation of its PGDM gold mining complex in Brazil. The ordered package includes Resemin jumbo drills and production rigs, paired with TEMPUS-branded underground support equipment, to mechanise drilling and production across the mine’s ramp-accessed stopes. The deal signals a shift from legacy fleets towards standardised, OEM-supported rigs, with implications for ground support design, development advance rates and maintenance planning at PGDM.

RKX Rock Extraction is set to unveil an electric pulse rock-breaking system at Hillhead 2026, targeting operations where explosives are restricted or supply-constrained and hydraulic hammers are slow, noisy and maintenance-intensive. The Lisburn-based company’s technology uses high-voltage electrical pulses to fracture rock in situ, eliminating on-site explosive storage and reducing flyrock, vibration and dust. For mines and quarries facing tight vibration limits near infrastructure or communities, the method could open additional extraction zones and simplify permitting for selective breakage and scaling.

Greenland Resources has joined Luleå Tekniska Universitet’s BOREAS consortium, alongside 12 other partners, to develop autonomous robotic systems for its Malmbjerg molybdenum project in central-east Greenland. The collaboration targets robotic support for construction, operation and maintenance in remote, high-relief terrain, where steep slopes, ice, and limited access complicate conventional open-pit development. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, the work signals future deployment of field robots for tasks such as bench inspection, slope monitoring and infrastructure upkeep under Arctic conditions.