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US federal critical minerals support under the Trump administration has reached about $18.6 billion across 60 financings, with roughly $15.9 billion in loans, $2.1 billion in equity and $615 million in grants, but BMO Global Commodities Research says the allocation is heavily skewed to rare earths despite their modest $3.5 billion global market. Major rare earth packages include a $565 million DFC facility for Brazil’s Serra Verde, USA Rare Earth’s planned $2.8 billion acquisition of the asset, and a $400 million US DoD stake in MP Materials. By contrast, tungsten projects such as Fireweed Metals’ Mactung and Northcliff Resources’ Sisson have received only about $15–16 million each, with antimony, nickel, cobalt, tantalum and tin seeing minimal support, signalling continued funding gaps for non-REE critical metals.

Silver surged as much as 7% to nearly $86/oz, a two‑month high, as stalled US‑Iran peace talks and a 10‑week Middle East conflict kept geopolitical risk elevated, while gold moved only about 0.4% higher. Analysts note silver has reclaimed two key technical levels over the past six weeks and is challenging its April peak, with a sustained break potentially opening a move towards the psychologically important $90/oz level. Despite dropping over 25% from its late‑January high of $121/oz, silver remains about 5% up year‑to‑date.

80 Mile PLC has secured all exploration permits and a definitive earn-in agreement with USFM to start a 5,000‑metre diamond drilling campaign in early July at the Disko-Nuussuaq nickel‑copper‑cobalt‑PGE project in West Greenland. USFM will spend an initial $30 million to earn up to 51% of Disko, with a $7.5 million budget allocated to the first drill phase, leaving 80 Mile free carried for its remaining 49%. SRK Exploration will act as Geological Manager and Forage Fusion Drilling will supply two diamond rigs for the first systematic drilling on the target, which is considered analogous to Norilsk‑Talnakh nickel/copper sulphide mineralisation.

Ionic Rare Earths has led a UK–European collaboration with Less Common Metals, GKN and Ford UK to complete what it calls the Western world’s first end-to-end recycled rare earth supply chain for EV motor magnets, using “made-in-Belfast” long-loop recycling technology. Recycled neodymium, dysprosium and terbium oxides at >99.5% purity were converted by LCM into strip alloy, then into GKN magnets that passed Ford Dunton rotor durability tests with performance equivalent to production magnets. The Belfast commercial recycling plant will feed LCM alloy production for Ford’s UK EV facilities, directly supporting the UK Critical Minerals Strategy target of sourcing 20% of mineral needs from recycling by 2035.

Gold Candle is acquiring Pan American Silver’s Larder property in Ontario’s Abitibi greenstone belt in an all-share deal worth 15,000,000 common shares, giving Pan American about 12.9% of Gold Candle on closing. The transaction covers the entire Larder package, including the Bear Lake, Cheminis and Fernland gold zones along the Cadillac–Larder Lake break, a major Archean shear-hosted gold corridor. For miners and explorers, the deal consolidates control of a structurally complex, high-potential orogenic gold trend under a single, exploration-focused junior.

Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation has reached financial close on the Jinbi Solar Project in Western Australia’s Pilbara and signed a 30‑year power purchase agreement with Rio Tinto to supply renewable electricity to the miner’s operations on Yindjibarndi Ngurra. The Indigenous-led project will now move into construction, adding large-scale solar generation into Rio Tinto’s Pilbara grid, which is currently dominated by gas and diesel. For miners and project engineers, the deal signals growing long-horizon offtake certainty for utility-scale renewables integrated with remote, heavy-industry loads.

Kinross Tasiast has commissioned a Hitachi EX8000-6 face-shovel excavator, now the largest mining excavator operating in Mauritania and only the fourth EX8000 unit delivered in Africa. The machine, weighing over 800 t and typically paired with ultra-class haul trucks, is expected to materially increase loading rates in the Tasiast open pit. For mine planners and geotechnical teams, the larger bench heights, wider dig faces and higher instantaneous production rates will influence slope design, traffic management and blast fragmentation requirements.

David Campbell has been appointed national director of civil engineering at Harley Haddow, bringing 30 years’ experience including two 11-year stints at international consultancies, and will lead the civils team from the firm’s Glasgow office. Harley Haddow reports its Glasgow team has almost tripled in size in the past year, with recent hires including associate director Daniel Murray and senior structural engineers Elinor Reeves, Eric Graham and Ruaridh Gray. The move strengthens the consultancy’s UK-wide civil capability across its seven offices, with Glasgow positioned as a key growth hub.

CECE’s 2024 Congress will be held at the IET’s Savoy Place in London from 27–29 October, hosted by the UK’s Construction Equipment Association under current CECE president Phil Layton of JCB. Keynotes include economist Joe Nellis on global uncertainty, Warner Bros VP Jason Bevan on innovation and creativity, and Lt Col Stewart Hill on leadership and decision-making from Afghanistan combat experience. A dedicated panel on skills, education and early engagement will examine how equipment manufacturers and contractors can collaborate to attract and train the future workforce.

Hillhead 2026 at Hillhead Quarry from 23–25 June will host 600 exhibitors with expanded live demonstrations of crushers, dumpers, tyres, powertrains, hydraulics, and safety systems for quarrying, construction, and recycling. Key launches include Pilot Crushtec’s TwisterTrac VS350E VSI crusher with Stage V Volvo Penta engine claiming up to 40% lower fuel use, Thwaites’ nine-tonne ROPS+ dumper and new electric two- and three-tonne swivel models, and Continental’s LD-Master Rock L5 and MPT 91 tyres with integrated pressure/temperature sensors. Engineers can also assess ACE Plant’s Dromone D80 Ball & Spoon hitch for reduced whole-body vibration, Hyundai G2/DX engines via Marshall’s, and Jihostroj QHDM2 reversible hydraulic motors for mobile crushing plant.

The Asbestos Testing and Consultancy Association (ATaC) and apprenticeships provider Tiro have launched two revised asbestos programmes that cut time to competence from 15 to 12 months, targeting a UK surveying workforce with an average age in the mid-to-late 40s and a looming retirement-driven skills gap. Apprentices now follow distinct routes as site-based analysts/surveyors aligned to the RSPH Level 3 Award in Asbestos Air Monitoring and Clearance Procedures, or as lab-based bulk analysts aligned to the RSPH Level 3 Awards in Asbestos Bulk Analysis. Cohort-based, asbestos-only delivery and completion routes linked to AMI membership and the CSCS-badged AMI Skills Card aim to give employers faster, job-ready technical capability and clearer professional progression.

Epiroc has supplied its HB 3600 DP hydraulic breaker to Bharat Constructions for the 27.4km Shimla Bypass Tunnel Project in India, where blasting is restricted in geologically sensitive Himalayan sections close to populated areas. The breaker provides controlled, non‑explosive rock excavation in zones with complex formations and faulted ground, complementing drill‑and‑blast tunnelling supported by the New Austrian Tunnelling Method. Technical adaptations for tunnel clearances, continuous duty and underground working cycles enabled steady advance while keeping vibration and safety within regulatory limits.

Willow Services (Southern) Ltd has been fined £20,000 plus £5,607 costs at Westminster Magistrates’ Court after roofer Mark Smith fell approximately 11 feet through an unguarded loft hatch while re-roofing a house in Waterlooville on 13 May 2024, suffering fractures to his L1 vertebra and hip. HSE investigators found the company had not planned the work at height, failed to install basic fall prevention around the loft opening, and provided no competent supervision. The case signals continued strict enforcement of Regulation 4(1) of the Work at Height Regulations 2005 on small contractors.

Fox Group has acquired surfacing contractor DSD Construction and concrete producer Moore Readymix, in a Stellex Capital Management-backed deal aimed at building a circular economy-focused construction materials business. The move expands Fox’s footprint in asphalt surfacing and ready-mixed concrete supply, integrating upstream materials with contracting services. For civil and highways projects, the combined group signals tighter control of aggregates, asphalt and concrete logistics, with potential for increased use of recycled materials in pavements and structural concrete mixes.

Strike action has begun at Crane Building Services & Utilities (Crane BS&U) in Hitchin, part of US-owned Crane Co’s Process Flow Technologies division, after GMB union members voted for a two-week walkout over pay. The dispute follows a five-day strike in 2024 that ended with a 7% pay rise, with GMB regional organiser Andre Marques now calling for a “fair uplift” and “meaningful dialogue”. Any prolonged stoppage could disrupt supply of valves, fittings and flow-control components to UK building services and utilities projects.

Australia’s drive to expand onshore critical minerals processing has advanced with the opening of new research facilities focused on refining battery and magnet metals such as lithium, rare earths and cobalt. The centres are equipped for pilot‑scale hydrometallurgical and pyrometallurgical testwork, including leaching, solvent extraction and high‑temperature roasting, to bridge the gap between bench chemistry and commercial plants. For process and project engineers, the facilities offer local options to de‑risk flowsheet design, validate recoveries on Australian ores and generate data for bankable feasibility studies.

Greatland Gold has reported one of its strongest intercepts to date at the West Dome Underground project, with new drilling returning a high-grade gold interval that materially extends known mineralisation down-plunge. The WDU target lies adjacent to the Havieron system in Western Australia’s Paterson Province, where existing underground development and decline access provide a pathway to rapid resource conversion and potential mine planning updates. For geotechnical and mine design teams, the result supports further step-out drilling and may justify re-optimising stope shapes and ground support assumptions around the new high-grade zone.

Lampson Australia is leveraging more than three decades of heavy-lift and haulage experience to execute keystone mining projects using ultra-heavy crawler cranes and specialised transporters for components such as mining shovels and draglines. The company’s fleet includes high-capacity Lampson Transi-Lift cranes and multi-axle self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) configured for multi-hundred-tonne loads, long load paths and constrained brownfield corridors. For mine expansion and shutdown work, this capability reduces on-site assembly, shortens critical-path outages and lowers ground improvement requirements compared with conventional stick-built approaches.

Yilgarn Iron has appointed Thiess to restart iron ore production at the Koolyanobbing operations in Western Australia’s Yilgarn region, reviving a site that previously supplied lump and fines to export markets via the Esperance port rail corridor. Thiess is expected to provide contract mining services including drill-and-blast, load-and-haul and ore handling, with a focus on quickly re-establishing pit access, waste stripping and ROM stockpile capacity. The partnership signals renewed demand for mid-grade hematite from smaller Yilgarn deposits, with implications for local rail logistics and port throughput planning.

Alligator Energy’s first five-spot well pattern at the Samphire in‑situ recovery uranium field trial has met its leach and recovery targets, confirming the project’s ISR concept in South Australia’s Frome Basin. The trial used alkaline leach chemistry in a confined sandstone aquifer to recover uranium from the Blackbush deposit, with solution breakthrough and head grade response tracking closely to pre‑trial hydrogeological models. Results will feed into updated resource, flow‑rate and reagent consumption assumptions for the planned Samphire restart study.

New permanent southbound lane configurations on New South Wales’ Warringah Freeway, introduced on 2 May, have operated smoothly in their first week on what is described as Australia’s busiest road. The reconfiguration alters southbound access to three major structures—the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Harbour Tunnel and Cahill Expressway—requiring drivers to commit earlier to dedicated lane paths. For designers and traffic engineers, the early performance suggests the complex weaving and merge arrangements can be managed without immediate capacity loss, but long‑term monitoring of bottlenecks at these three nodes will be critical.

HS2 has awarded the Washwood Heath depot contract to Taylor Woodrow Infrastructure and Aureos Rail (TWA JV) for a 30-hectare site incorporating a rolling stock maintenance building, automatic vehicle inspection facility, carriage wash, overnight sidings and a test track, plus the Network Integrated Control Centre. Balfour Beatty VINCI has already cleared legacy industrial structures, undertaken soil decontamination and constructed a 750m retained cutting linking to the 3.5-mile Bromford tunnel. Remaining land will be released for commercial development and green space, with additional viaducts under construction to connect into Curzon Street station.

US cancellation of uranium supply contract renewals in late 1959 abruptly threatened Canada’s position as the world’s top uranium producer, just months after Elliot Lake opened a C$3-million, 116‑bed hospital built on the boom. With US military contracts due to expire in 1962–63 and domestic American uranium output rising, higher‑cost Canadian mines shut while stronger operators consolidated assets. Mining towns like Elliot Lake faced a rapid bust that lasted until civilian nuclear demand later in the 1960s stabilised the sector.

Liebherr has delivered the UK’s first 195 HC-LH luffing jib tower crane to City Lifting, with initial erection and testing carried out at the company’s Leighton Buzzard yard. Liebherr technicians supported City Lifting’s team through the first assembly, giving UK operators early hands-on experience with the new HC-LH series configuration and erection procedures. The crane’s first deployment will be on a housing development in Essex, signalling growing use of high-capacity luffers for constrained residential sites and tight urban lifting envelopes.