Geomechanics.io

Murphy has completed the UK’s first permanent works pour using Ecocem ACT low‑carbon concrete, marking a shift from traditional CEM I mixes on a live infrastructure scheme. Ecocem ACT is a clinker‑reduced binder system designed to cut embodied CO₂ significantly while maintaining CEM I‑equivalent strength and setting performance, enabling direct substitution in structural elements. For designers and contractors, this early UK deployment provides a live reference for specification, QA testing, and durability assessment of next‑generation low‑carbon binders in permanent works.

Antofagasta’s first-quarter copper production fell 8% year-on-year to 143,000 tonnes due to lower processing rates and weaker grades at two concentrators, but net cash costs dropped 30% to $1.08/lb and 2026 guidance of 650,000–700,000 tonnes at $1.15–1.35/lb by-product cash cost remains unchanged. Capex guidance stays at $3.4 billion, with the Centinela second concentrator in pre-commissioning and Los Pelambres expected to lift output via higher ore throughput and improving grades. The miner is monitoring rising imported sulphuric acid prices linked to a Strait of Hormuz blockage while evaluating early-stage copper options in Argentina and the US.

War in Iran and Indonesia’s decision to cap 2026 nickel ore quotas at 260–270 million wet tonnes, down from 379 million tonnes, are expected to support prices, with BMI lifting its 2026 forecast to $16,600/t despite a projected 324,000‑tonne global surplus. Sulphur supply disruptions from the Middle East, critical for Indonesia’s HPAL plants, have already forced several processors to cut output by at least 10%, while higher energy costs are pressuring higher‑cost producers outside Indonesia. Demand growth is seen slowing to about 3% in 2026 as lithium iron phosphate batteries displace nickel‑rich chemistries.

Hancock Prospecting and Rio Tinto have been ordered by the West Australian Supreme Court to pay ongoing iron ore royalties from the Hope Downs complex to Wright Prospecting and DFD Rhodes, with Hancock estimating exposure of about A$14 million and A$4 million per year respectively. The judgment confirms Hancock’s exclusive ownership of the Hope Downs and East Angelas tenements, rejecting rival title claims from Wright family entities after a 15‑year dispute over 1950s–1970s prospecting and royalty agreements. Liability for back‑dated royalties and interest will be shared between Hancock and Rio, adding a recurring cost line to a major Pilbara operation.

Newmont has suspended underground operations at its Cadia gold-copper mine in New South Wales after a magnitude 4.5 earthquake and two aftershocks late on 14 April, with all underground personnel safely evacuated and no injuries reported. Specialist teams are now inspecting and assessing underground infrastructure before management decides on a restart, raising the risk of short-term disruption at one of Australia’s largest hard-rock gold operations. Newmont’s NYSE-listed shares fell about 4.4% to $114.09 on the news, cutting its market capitalisation to roughly $125 billion.

St Barbara has secured Nova Scotia approval to reprocess about three million tonnes of 0.4 g/t stockpiled ore at the closed Touquoy gold mine, targeting 38,000 oz of gold over 10–14 months with all-in sustaining costs of $1,598/oz and capital outlay of C$11.4 million to refurbish the mill. The industrial permit prohibits new mining, confines activity to the existing footprint, and requires all tailings to be backfilled into the open pit under an C$80 million reclamation bond. The campaign, expected to support 197 jobs, also underpins St Barbara’s 15‑Mile hub concept, aiming for 100,000 oz/year from 2030–2040 across 697 sq. km and 56 exploration targets.

CATL is committing 30 billion yuan (about $4.4 billion) to a new mining subsidiary that will consolidate its existing Jiangxi lithium asset, invest in lithium, nickel and phosphorus projects in China and overseas, and handle exploration, metals processing and chemical sales to secure battery raw material supply. The company has brought in Chen Jinghe, founder and former chairman of Zijin Mining Group, as an advisor to shape the upstream portfolio. The move follows lithium prices rising over 140% in a year and comes alongside a 49% year-on-year jump in CATL’s Q1 net income to 20.7 billion yuan.

Seabridge Gold has issued an initial inferred mineral resource for the Snip North deposit at its Iskut project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, totalling 605.7 million tonnes grading 0.47 g/t gold, 0.07% copper and 1.5 g/t silver (9.2 million oz. gold, 28.3 million oz. silver and 923 million lb. copper). Mineralisation remains open in multiple directions, with Seabridge planning further fieldwork to refine the intrusive-hosted system and test extensions. The discovery adds a large, lower-grade copper-gold-silver resource to Seabridge’s Golden Triangle portfolio, alongside its KSM-scale assets.

The US Department of Energy’s TRACE-Ga initiative is awarding about $5.4 million to five firms to design and validate flowsheets to restart primary gallium production, after nearly 40 years of zero domestic output and 100% import reliance under China’s 98% global supply dominance. PHNX Materials will target non-traditional waste streams to co-produce gallium, supplementary cementitious materials, alumina and ammonium sulphate, while Atlantic Alumina and Found Energy will apply counter-current ion exchange, electrochemistry and Direct Bayer Extraction to recover gallium from hot, dilute Bayer liquors. Kunin Technologies aims for a 12 tpa gallium pathway from high-Ga metal streams, and Indium Corporation will build recycling-based recovery from scrap, signalling new process options for alumina refineries and metallurgical residues.

Sprott Inc. has launched the Sprott Rare Earths Ex-China ETF (Nasdaq: REXC), the first fund focused solely on rare earths companies operating outside China, tracking the Nasdaq Sprott Rare Earths Ex-China Index (NSREXC). The index covers miners, separators, refiners and producers of rare earth elements, with REXC required to hold at least 80% of assets in index constituents. Positioned around national and energy security themes, the ETF complements Sprott’s existing pure-play critical mineral funds in uranium, copper, lithium and nickel.

Manganese X Energy has secured a US patent for its proprietary manganese sulphate purification technology, extending IP protection already accepted in South Africa and with further applications filed in Canada, Mexico and Australia. The patent is intended to support development of the 12.2 km² Battery Hill project in New Brunswick, which hosts a historically reported 194 million tonnes of manganese carbonate across five zones and is now in pre-feasibility assessing multiple processing routes. Shares rose over 9% to C$0.12, valuing the company at C$25.8 million.

Malabar Resources has completed the first full shears of coal from the longwall at its Maxwell Underground mine in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales, initiating production at what is planned to be the region’s newest and largest long-life longwall operation. The project, developed under New South Wales planning approval, transitions Maxwell from development drivage to longwall extraction using a high-capacity shearer and shield supports. This step moves the mine towards sustained longwall panel production, with implications for regional coal supply, ventilation design, strata control and long-term equipment scheduling.

R-evolution, Hexagon’s green-tech subsidiary, has begun its first missions using hybrid airborne imagery and LiDAR over a Vale legacy mine site as part of the Hexagon Green Cubes digital twin programme. The system fuses high-resolution optical data with LiDAR-derived elevation models to capture complex topography, waste dumps and water bodies in a single georeferenced dataset. For mine closure and reclamation teams, this enables more accurate volumetrics, subsidence detection and slope stability assessment than conventional photogrammetry alone.

ABB has secured a contract to supply both gearless mill drive (GMD) and ring-geared mill drive (RMD) systems for Harmony Gold’s Eva Copper Mine Project, a new open-pit operation about 75 km north of Cloncurry in northwest Queensland. The package will cover large SAG and ball mill installations, combining high-torque GMDs with RMDs for smaller mills to optimise grinding circuit flexibility and electrical efficiency. For process and electrical engineers, the choice of mixed GMD/RMD architecture signals a focus on variable-speed control, reduced mechanical components and lower maintenance in a greenfield copper concentrator.

Major upgrades to the Curzon Street Bridge at Brisbane Markets are underway to improve flood resilience under the $450 million Queensland Resilience and Risk Reduction Program, with funding shared by the Federal and State Governments and Brisbane Markets. The works form part of the Betterment project, targeting critical access to the wholesale precinct that was repeatedly cut during recent major flood events. For designers and asset owners, the project signals continued funding support for hardening key access bridges in flood-prone logistics hubs across Queensland.

Construction’s role in more than one-third of UK carbon emissions is widely acknowledged, but its contribution to acute silt pollution from earthworks, dewatering and runoff from haul roads and stockpiles is still largely overlooked. Fine sediment washed from sites into watercourses can smother spawning gravels, clog culverts and foul SuDS assets, often breaching Environment Agency permits and triggering costly stop-work notices. The piece calls for more rigorous use of silt fences, settlement lagoons and lamella clarifiers, plus better phasing of bulk earthworks to keep disturbed areas and exposed cohesive soils to a minimum.

EDF, JCB and other major employers have signed GMB’s new charter committing to provide properly fitting, inclusive PPE for an estimated 250,000 women working in construction, energy and related sectors. The charter targets issues such as oversized hi-vis jackets, poorly fitting fall-arrest harnesses and gloves that compromise grip, which can increase trip, entanglement and manual-handling risks on site. Contractors and clients may now face stronger pressure in pre-qualification and site audits to evidence gender-specific PPE procurement and stock management.

Kier, Bam Nuttall, VolkerStevin and Taylor Woodrow report avoiding £92.6M of project error costs after adopting the Get It Right Initiative (Giri) training programme aimed at reducing design, construction and interface mistakes. The scheme focuses on root-cause issues such as poor information flow, inadequate planning and tolerance control, using structured workshops and site-based coaching for engineers, supervisors and designers. For practitioners, the result signals that systematic error-reduction training can materially cut rework, delay and claims on complex UK infrastructure schemes without major capital spend.

Yancoal is expanding its Bowen Basin footprint with the acquisition of the Kestrel underground metallurgical coal mine from joint owners EMR Capital and Adaro Energy, adding a long-life coking coal asset to its existing Moolarben, Hunter Valley and Mount Thorley Warkworth portfolio. The Kestrel operation, which uses longwall mining to target high-quality hard coking coal from the Permian German Creek seam, is rail-linked to Gladstone export terminals, giving Yancoal greater control over product blending and logistics. The deal consolidates Yancoal’s position as a major Australian met coal supplier and may influence regional contract pricing and infrastructure access negotiations.

Monadelphous has secured $145 million in new construction, maintenance and contract extension work across multiple Australian resources projects, extending a strong recent run of awards. The packages span brownfield and sustaining capital scopes typical of iron ore and LNG operations in the Pilbara and north-west, including structural, mechanical and piping works plus shutdown maintenance. Contractors and suppliers should expect continued demand for heavy fabrication, site-based SMP crews and long-lead items, with competition likely to focus on labour availability and schedule certainty rather than headline rates.

ABB has signed an agreement with Harmony Gold to supply power and automation solutions for the Eva Copper project in Queensland, targeting higher plant efficiency as copper demand rises. The deal is expected to cover integrated electrification and process control systems for the greenfield operation, enabling coordinated management of crushers, mills and material handling. For engineers, the move signals continued investment in high-availability electrical infrastructure and digital control at large-scale Australian copper projects as they move from design to execution.

Newmont has suspended underground operations at the Cadia gold mine near Orange, New South Wales, after a magnitude-4.5 earthquake struck west of the site overnight, triggering geotechnical inspections. The company is assessing ground support, backs and pillars in the panel cave and other underground workings before allowing personnel re-entry, while surface processing and other non-underground activities reportedly remain largely unaffected. The event will focus attention on seismic design criteria, rock mass characterisation and monitoring systems for deep block and panel cave operations in intraplate seismic regions.

DryFlow Magnetics in Adelaide is fast-tracking a pilot of its dry magnetic separation system to produce high‑purity iron concentrate suitable for green steel, eliminating the need for conventional wet beneficiation circuits. The containerised plant integrates crushers, screens and rare‑earth magnetic separators in a fully dry flow sheet, targeting low‑grade or waste iron ore streams that are currently uneconomic. For mine operators, the key draw is reduced water demand and tailings volume, with potential retrofit to existing crushing plants and brownfield stockpiles.

Iranian rail engineers have reportedly restored services on the key Tehran–Tabriz and Tehran–Mashhad corridors after April 2026 US/Israeli airstrikes damaged multiple rail bridges. Local reports state that temporary repairs and rapid structural assessments have allowed traffic to resume on spans that had suffered direct blast impacts and deck damage, rather than full girder replacement. The response suggests a focus on emergency shoring, expedited load rating and staged reopening, with longer-term reconstruction of primary bridge elements likely to follow under traffic constraints.