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The Democratic Republic of Congo has lifted planned copper sales to the US to 500,000 tonnes via a Gécamines–Mercuria joint venture backed by the US International Development Finance Corporation, drawing on minority stakes in Kamoto Copper Company and the high-grade Tenke Fungurume mine. Congo’s copper output reached 3.5 million tonnes in 2025, while a new ARECOMS-run strategic reserve will stockpile cobalt, germanium and other designated minerals, including up to 9,600 tonnes of quota-reserved cobalt in 2026. For miners and traders, this signals tighter state control over export volumes and increased competition with Chinese operators such as CMOC, Zijin and Huayou.

Ottawa’s March 2026 commitment of up to $40 million for the Canadian Digital Core Library is framed as strategic infrastructure, treating archived drill core and geoscience data as a foundation for critical mineral sovereignty across cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths. Masoud Aali, founder and CEO of Scient Analytics, argues that simply scanning core is inadequate if preprocessing, interpretation, hosting and workflow integration are outsourced to foreign platforms, which “digitise the rock and export the advantage”. He points to Australia’s two‑decade National Virtual Core Library as a model for a large, open, continuous system that embeds domestic analytical capability.

Rio Tinto has commissioned a C$135 million, 1.1‑kilometre alumina conveyor at its BC Works aluminium smelter in Kitimat, designed for a 50‑year life and capacity of 800,000 tonnes per year. The sealed pipe system is engineered to cut particulate emissions by about 40% by enclosing the alumina stream, reducing transfer points and integrating high‑efficiency dust collectors. Recovered alumina is returned to the process, simplifying maintenance and stabilising raw material feed to the long‑running British Columbia operation.

Blue Moon Metals’ updated feasibility study for the Nussir copper project in northern Norway outlines a 13‑year underground operation producing an average 19,000 tonnes CuEq per year, including 3,600 oz gold and 546,000 oz silver, from measured and indicated resources of 28.72 million tonnes at 1.2% CuEq. The base case gives an after‑tax NPV8 of $235 million, 19% IRR and initial capex of $184 million, with copper accounting for 77% of payable metal. Hot commissioning of the process plant is targeted for Q3 2027, with first production in December 2027 and scope to extend mine life using inferred resources and the separate Ulveryggen deposit.

Uranium Royalty is acquiring Sweetwater Royalties in a US$1.1 billion cash-and-stock deal that values Sweetwater at about US$1.9 billion including debt, creating a new US-based parent listed on Nasdaq and backed by Orion Resource Partners and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan with 43% and 16% stakes respectively. Sweetwater brings about 10.5 billion tonnes of trona and a land package of roughly 3,400 km² of fee surface rights plus over 18,210 km² of mineral rights, making the combined entity the largest landowner in Wyoming. The enlarged royalty platform, holding 2.3 million lb U₃O₈, is positioned to use stable soda ash cash flows to fund further uranium royalty acquisitions amid a primary supply deficit.

War with Iran has pushed antimony’s defence role into focus, yet Canada still has no antimony-specific strategy despite classifying the metal as critical and committing more than C$3.6 billion to broad critical minerals funds. Canagold’s New Polaris in British Columbia, with 5,173 tonnes of contained antimony and testwork producing a 59.1% Sb concentrate at 93.1% recovery, is Canada’s most advanced project but receives no antimony revenue in its feasibility and has been denied federal funding. Earlier-stage efforts such as Antimony Resources’ Bald Hill (10,000 metres drilled, three rigs turning) and Critical One Energy’s 30 km-long Howells Lake belt face the added hurdle of no North American processing route for future concentrate.

US Critical Materials Corp. and Columbia University have launched a two-year “Mud to Metal” programme to extract defence-critical gallium, scandium, titanium and rare earth elements from red mud waste sourced from multiple alumina refineries, including operations linked to Alcoa. Led by Columbia’s Greeshma Gadikota, the work will trial oxidative leaching, selective separations and co-recovery of titanium dioxide and iron oxide, coupled with techno-economic and lifecycle modelling to test commercial viability. Success could create a domestic byproduct supply chain that complements USCM’s high-grade Sheep Creek rare earth project in Montana.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is pressing the World Bank at the IMF–World Bank spring meetings to redirect green lending towards “high-quality, durable” critical minerals mining and processing projects, particularly rare earths, to counter China’s control of over 90% of global rare earth supply. Managing the dominant US shareholding, he called for rapid support across all Bank arms for projects and associated infrastructure that diversify supply chains and increase domestic value capture. Bessent also welcomed the expiry of the Bank’s climate change action plan, labelling its climate finance targets “myopic” and signalling a broader shift in multilateral funding priorities.

Keller has appointed Scott Nichols as President of Keller North America and promoted Curtis Cook to President of its US Foundations business unit, reshaping leadership at one of the region’s largest geotechnical contractors. Nichols will oversee a portfolio spanning ground improvement, grouting, deep foundations and earth retention across Canada, the United States and Mexico, while Cook will focus on US piling and shoring operations. The changes signal continuity of in-house leadership and may influence procurement, partnering and design–build delivery on major foundation and ground engineering projects.

Ontario’s Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, David Piccini, has announced provincial and WSIB-backed funding, led by WSIB President and CEO Jeff Lang, for a new state-of-the-art mine training facility in Sudbury. The centre is intended to expand capacity for practical underground and surface training, using modern mining equipment and simulation-based instruction to address current skills gaps. For operators and contractors in Ontario’s hard-rock sector, this signals more locally available, standardised competency training focused on reducing incident rates.

Austmine and AusIMM, with innovation hubs Expande (Chile), Peru Mining Innovation Hub and CEMI (Canada), have named six finalists for the GRX26 Global Open Innovation Colab challenge “Critical Disruptors: From Discovery to Recovery”. The competition, to be staged at the Global Resources Innovation Expo (GRX26), targets technologies that close gaps from critical mineral exploration through to extraction and recovery. Outcomes are expected to focus on deployable solutions for orebody characterisation, processing efficiency and recovery improvements that can be trialled across multiple jurisdictions.

Metso is expanding its bulk material handling network with a new regional hub in Cape Town, providing African mines and ports with local engineering support for conveyors, shiploaders and stacker-reclaimers. The centre will give customers closer access to Metso’s advanced automation technologies for BMH systems, including digital monitoring and control platforms aimed at improving throughput and equipment availability. For project teams, the hub should shorten design and commissioning cycles for large materials handling systems and reduce reliance on Europe-based engineering resources.

MMD Group has acquired full intellectual property rights from Anglo American for TraxIQ, a system-level material handling solution designed to optimise truck, shovel and in-pit crushing plant interactions across mine sites. Control logic and data integration in TraxIQ coordinate loading units, conveyors and semi-mobile crushers to reduce queuing, idle time and surge bin overloads, improving utilisation of high-capex assets. For geotechnical and mine planners, wider deployment could change haul road design, crusher station siting and stockpile geometry to suit more tightly managed material flow.

McHale Komatsu has secured an agreement to supply a large Komatsu mining fleet to Tungsten West PLC for the restart of the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine in Devon, one of the world’s largest tungsten resources. The deal supports redevelopment of the open-pit operation, which previously used large-scale truck–shovel mining and extensive waste stripping. For geotechnical and mine planners, the new fleet specification will influence haul road geometry, pit slope performance under renewed traffic loading, and scheduling for high-volume tungsten and tin ore movement.

Glencore Technology is expanding deployment of its Jameson Cell into rougher flotation duties, using its high-intensity downcomer design to boost throughput and recovery in both brownfield debottlenecking and greenfield concentrators. The compact cell footprint allows replacement of multiple conventional mechanical cells, freeing floor area and reducing associated structural steel and piping. For plant designers and metallurgists, this signals growing scope to retrofit rougher banks for higher volumetric efficiency without major civil works or additional flotation lines.

First Quantum Minerals and Hitachi Construction Machinery have commissioned the world’s first ultra-large battery electric mining truck, a fully electric Hitachi EH4000, at the Kansanshi copper-gold mine in Zambia. The truck operates without a diesel engine, using a large-format battery system and electric drive to cut on-site fuel consumption and associated CO₂ emissions. Deployment at Kansanshi provides a full-scale test bed for trolley-assist integration, high-current charging infrastructure and duty-cycle optimisation on ultra-class haul routes.

Sydney’s M1 metro line is adding 166 extra services per week across the city in response to ongoing fuel supply pressures, boosting peak and weekend rail capacity. The uplift targets busy commuter periods on the driverless, high-frequency line, which already runs trains at short headways typical of modern automated metros. For civil and rail engineers, the move signals continued operational preference for maximising existing fixed-rail capacity rather than short‑term road upgrades when energy supply risks affect road traffic.

SIMEX’s PL2000 planer and ART 1000 asphalt repair hot box are being paired by Total Rockbreaking Solutions as a compact package for milling and reinstating asphalt in Australian roadworks. The PL2000, mounted on a skid-steer loader, cold planes existing pavements to a controlled depth and width, while the ART 1000 stores and heats up to 1000 litres of asphalt mix for immediate patching. The combination targets small to medium rehabilitation jobs where full-size profilers and pavers are impractical, tightening work windows and reducing multiple plant movements.

JLG is expanding its Australian and New Zealand footprint as a “one‑stop shop” for road and civil contractors, adding AUSA dumpers and rough‑terrain forklifts to its established access equipment line. With branches in Sydney, Brisbane, Port Macquarie, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth, the company now covers elevated work platforms, telehandlers and compact site haulage from a single supplier. For project teams, the integrated fleet simplifies plant sourcing, transport and maintenance planning across road construction and broader infrastructure works.

The Federal Government has committed an extra $30.2 million for Queensland road safety works under the national Black Spot Program, targeting 44 high‑risk locations. The program allocates $150 million annually for engineering treatments such as new or upgraded traffic signals, roundabouts, protected turn lanes and improved signage and line‑marking at crash‑prone sites. For designers and road authorities, the funding signals continued support for low‑cost, high‑impact geometric and traffic control upgrades rather than major capacity expansions.

Terrain Minerals has reported strong reverse circulation drilling results at its Lightning gold prospect in Western Australia, indicating the mineralised system extends beyond the previously defined footprint. The company is testing multiple stacked lodes along strike and at depth, with recent holes intersecting continuous sulphide-bearing quartz veining and visible gold in several zones. Results will guide follow-up step-out drilling to refine the geometry of the high-grade shoots and support an initial resource model for the broader Bundarra project area.

Record quarterly output from Evolution Mining’s Mungari gold operation has driven the company into a net cash position for the March quarter, reversing prior net debt. The Western Australian site, centred on the Frog’s Leg and White Foil underground and open-pit mines and a conventional CIL processing plant, lifted production and reduced unit costs sufficiently to generate surplus free cash flow. For mine planners and process engineers, the result signals further optimisation potential in underground stoping schedules, mill throughput and recovery at an already mature asset.

Suspended underground operations at Newcrest’s Cadia gold mine near Orange following a magnitude‑4.5 earthquake have put the site’s emergency response and geotechnical controls under scrutiny. The event triggered immediate withdrawal of personnel from the underground panels, inspections of ground support and ventilation circuits, and checks on critical infrastructure linking the block cave to the Cadia open pit. For mine operators, the incident reinforces the need for robust seismic monitoring, clear trigger‑action response plans, and rapid re‑entry protocols in seismically active districts.

Chalcopyrite, the dominant copper iron sulphide in most porphyry and VMS deposits, is being re‑examined as a route to cleaner copper production through alternative leaching and electrochemical pathways that avoid traditional high‑temperature smelting. Researchers are focusing on low‑temperature oxidative leach systems, including chloride and bioleach circuits, to accelerate chalcopyrite dissolution and cut SO₂ emissions and slag volumes. For mine operators and metallurgists, successful deployment would shift flowsheets towards heap or in‑situ leaching, change tailings mineralogy, and reduce reliance on large concentrate transport and smelter capacity.