CIMIC Group subsidiaries Sedgman and Leighton Asia have secured separate contracts from Hindustan Zinc Limited to help deliver India’s first zinc tailings recycling facility at the Rampura Agucha Mine in Rajasthan. Sedgman will focus on process plant and tailings treatment infrastructure, while Leighton Asia will provide project delivery and construction services for the brownfield site. The project signals large-scale reprocessing of legacy zinc tailings at one of the world’s largest zinc operations, with implications for paste backfill design, tailings storage stability and metal recovery circuits.

UK housebuilding targets and a relaunched new town policy are colliding with AMP8, which already commits water companies to a sharp increase in capital works on ageing mains, treatment works and storm overflows. Contractors and consultants face concurrent demands for new trunk mains, service reservoirs and wastewater treatment capacity for large greenfield sites while also delivering AMP8 resilience, leakage and river water quality schemes. The squeeze on design, construction and commissioning resources is pushing interest in standardised treatment plant modules, offsite fabrication and long-term alliancing to keep programmes buildable.

American Rare Earths’ Halleck Creek project in Wyoming has secured a Seed Translational Acceleration of Research (STAR) award via the University of Wyoming’s NSF Accelerating Research Translation programme to study byproducts and tailings from rare earth extraction. The work, led by Tyler Brown at UW’s School of Energy Resources, will assess technical viability, processing requirements and end-use applications for these materials and their impact on project economics. Halleck Creek metallurgical tests have already upgraded ore from 0.34% to 3.72% TREO, removing 93.5% of non-rare earth material early so only 6.5% requires further refining.

Global mine development has shifted decisively to brownfield expansion, with a University of Queensland study of 366 sites in 58 countries showing brownfield capital dominated by copper (just under 50%), followed by gold (17.5%), iron ore (14.4%) and nickel (6.3%). Chile accounts for 25.2% of global brownfield capex, ahead of the US (11.4%) and Australia (10.1%), while minesite exploration by majors in Pacific and Southeast Asia has surged from 27.3% of budgets in 2010 to 76.8% in 2024. Nearly 80% of brownfield mines assessed via satellite sit in areas with multiple high-risk conditions, and over half lie within 20 km of biodiversity hotspots or protected areas, signalling tighter geotechnical, water and permitting constraints for future expansions.

A 7m pedestrian bridge in the Netherlands has been unveiled as the world’s first using a concrete mix claimed to be CO₂‑neutral over its life cycle. Developers report that the binder system and aggregate selection are engineered so that production and curing emissions are fully offset by in‑service CO₂ uptake, without relying on external carbon credits. For designers, the project signals that carbon‑neutral structural concrete is moving from lab trials to full‑scale applications, raising immediate questions on durability testing, Eurocode compliance and verification of whole‑life carbon accounting.

Sustainability reporting in construction is described as fragmented and inconsistent, with project disclosures difficult to compare and data quality varying widely across contractors and asset owners. This patchwork approach is exposing schemes to reputational, regulatory and operational risk, particularly as clients demand verifiable carbon footprints, lifecycle assessments and supply chain traceability aligned with frameworks such as the GHG Protocol and EU taxonomy. For geotechnical and civil engineers, the direction of travel points to standardised metrics on embodied carbon in concrete and steel, site energy use and materials sourcing becoming routine contract requirements.

JCB technical service director Phil Layton has begun a two-year term as president of the Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE), representing the UK’s Construction Equipment Association. Layton plans to prioritise decarbonisation of construction machinery fleets, support for open global markets and a more competitive regulatory framework for European OEMs. CECE’s immediate policy push targets EU secondary legislation on road circulation of construction machinery and a guidance document for implementing the new Machinery Regulation, ahead of the CECE congress in London on 27–29 October.

Engineering and design firm Cowi has been appointed by the European Investment Bank to advise the Irish government on a nationwide district heating strategy expected to support up to €4bn (£3.5bn) of heat network infrastructure by 2035. The mandate will shape technical standards, phasing and financing for multiple urban heat networks, likely integrating waste heat, large-scale heat pumps and thermal storage into existing gas- and electricity-dominated systems. Civil and energy engineers should expect demand for detailed network routing, trench design, and interface works with dense urban utilities and building retrofit programmes.

Fortescue Metals has reported record first-half iron ore shipments from its Pilbara operations while advancing a major renewables build-out to cut diesel and gas use across mines and rail. The company is progressing large-scale solar and wind installations tied into its high-voltage transmission network and battery storage, aiming to displace fossil fuel power at processing plants and dewatering systems. For mine planners and engineers, the shift implies future pit, haul road and plant layouts will need to accommodate renewable generation footprints and grid-integration infrastructure.

The Western Australian Government has extended its coal supply agreement with Griffin Coal beyond July 2026 by up to five years to maintain fuel to the 854MW Collie power stations during the state’s staged coal-fired generation exit. The extension secures continued open-cut operations at the Collie mine, which has historically supplied several million tonnes of thermal coal per year to Synergy under long-term contracts. For geotechnical and mining teams, the decision signals ongoing pit stability management, overburden handling and progressive rehabilitation planning on a multi-year horizon rather than rapid closure.

Researchers at Monash University have developed a hydrometallurgical process to recover high‑purity critical metals from spent lithium‑ion batteries using greener reagents than conventional strong mineral acids. Led by PhD student Parisa Biniaz and Dr Parama Banerjee, the lab‑scale method targets elements such as lithium, cobalt and nickel from shredded cathode material while minimising secondary waste streams. The approach points to lower‑impact recycling flowsheets that could reduce reliance on primary ore for battery metals and change leach chemistry assumptions in future plant design.

Robson Civil Projects has been recognised for record-breaking rehabilitation and land management at BHP’s Mt Arthur Coal Mine in the Hunter Valley, where progressive closure works are reshaping large open-cut pits and overburden dumps into stable final landforms. The contractor has delivered high-volume bulk earthworks, topsoil placement and contour ripping, combined with erosion control structures and native pasture and woodland revegetation tailored to local catchments. For geotechnical and civil teams, the project shows large-scale integration of slope regrading, drainage reconfiguration and long-term stability design within an active coal operation.

Trump’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has overhauled Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act regulations to merge the two-step exploration licence and commercial recovery permit into a single, shorter review, potentially halving permitting times for polymetallic nodule projects in US and international waters. The Metals Company has already applied under the Trump-era framework for exploration over 199,895 sq. km and a 25,160 sq. km commercial recovery area in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, while Impossible Metals is pursuing AI-guided AUV nodule collection off American Samoa and in Bahraini waters. The move raises legal and environmental uncertainty because the US has not ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea or the International Seabed Authority regime governing mining beyond national jurisdiction.

The UK government’s £15bn Warm Homes Plan aims to upgrade up to five million homes by 2030 with rooftop solar, heat pumps supported by £7,500 grants, domestic batteries and insulation, with low-income households receiving fully funded packages. DESNEZ expects Future Homes Standard rules to make rooftop solar mandatory on new homes “where practicable”, tripling the current number of solar-equipped properties, while a new Warm Homes Agency and Workforce Taskforce will coordinate delivery and skills. Industry bodies welcome the scale but warn current supply chains, installer competence and training capacity are insufficient to deliver more than 1.5m heat pumps a year.

Cheshire-based mechanical and electrical contractor Key Integrated Services has appointed former Bouygues Energies & Services deputy managing director Adeel Aslam as chief operating officer. Aslam will expand the firm’s offer in advanced manufacturing, clean energy, food and beverage, and health and life sciences by adding process engineering and decarbonisation services, alongside new governance, people development and sustainability structures. He will retain advisory roles with the Advanced Manufacturing Forum North West, Bionow, the Greater Manchester Electrochemical Hydrogen Cluster and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Health & Life Sciences Cluster Board, signalling closer alignment with regional innovation networks.

Bristol City Leap, a joint venture between Bristol City Council and Ameresco, has launched a £25m retrofit programme to bring social housing in Henbury, Brentry, Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston up to at least EPC band C by March 2028. Works include external and cavity wall insulation, loft, roof and floor insulation, upgraded glazing and external doors, solar PV, energy‑efficient heat pumps, enhanced ventilation and low‑energy lighting. Funded through the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund and managed by the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, the scheme will test an area‑based delivery model at city scale.

US lawmakers have introduced the bipartisan SECURE Minerals Act to create a $2.5 billion Strategic Resilience Reserve (SRR) for critical minerals, directly targeting China’s control of over 60% of mined rare earths and about 90% of processing. The SRR would be run as an independent government corporation with a seven-member presidentially appointed board, prioritising US domestic projects, recycling and unconventional feedstocks, and materials where US import dependence is near 100%. Lawmakers are pushing to attach the measure to the US National Defense Authorization Act, signalling long-term policy backing for non-Chinese rare earth, lithium, graphite and cobalt supply chains.

Reviving Venezuela’s vertically integrated aluminium chain would cost up to $2.3 billion, with Wood Mackenzie estimating $100–$200 million to restart the Los Pijiguaos bauxite mine to around 2 Mtpa, $500–$600 million to rehabilitate the Interalumina refinery to roughly 1 Mtpa, and $1–$1.5 billion to bring the 460,000 tpa Venalum smelter back online. BMI and BNEF stress that metal output has fallen over 90% since 2004, citing degraded infrastructure, chronic power instability at the Guri hydro complex, security risks and opaque regulation. Analysts warn that, despite 300 Mt of proved bauxite reserves and extensive inferred resources, political risk, sanctions exposure and faster, cheaper oil developments are likely to keep large-scale mining capital sidelined for at least a decade.

Early design choices for Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) can lock in long-term performance, with Stuart Crisp, UK manager at Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS), stressing realistic runoff estimates, storage sizing and adoption of proprietary geocellular or plastic pipe systems from the outset. He argues that maintenance access, silt management and ownership responsibilities must be designed in early, rather than retrofitted, to avoid blocked inlets, inaccessible attenuation tanks and non-compliant outfalls. For civil and drainage engineers, the message is to integrate SuDS layout, hydraulic modelling and whole-life maintenance planning at concept stage, not RIBA Stage 4–5.

Rio Tinto has energised a new 25 MW solar plant at its Kennecott copper operations in Utah, adding to a 5 MW solar facility completed in 2023 to expand on-site renewable power. The project showcases a circular critical-minerals supply chain, with tellurium recovered at Kennecott used in manufacturing the solar panels that now supply the mine. For mine planners and process engineers, the build-out signals further integration of site-derived critical minerals into decarbonised power infrastructure for large-scale copper operations.

Geopolitical tension, China’s 15th Five-Year Plan pivoting from infrastructure to consumption, and US mid-term election uncertainty are set to make 2026 a volatile year for metals demand and pricing, with Wood Mackenzie lifting its base-case warming outlook to 2.6°C as decarbonisation slows. Copper is singled out for tight supply and tariff risk while most other metals remain oversupplied, pressuring prices even as solid-state battery progress and AI-driven data centre loads reshape power and metals demand. Capital discipline will keep miners favouring buybacks and M&A over greenfield projects, amplifying substitution battles such as copper versus aluminium and extending timelines in resource-nationalist jurisdictions.

Government plans a “once‑in‑a‑generation” overhaul of England’s water sector, proposing a new regulator with an in‑house chief engineer to tighten technical scrutiny of ageing treatment works, trunk mains and sewer networks. The reforms aim for earlier intervention on failing assets, with stronger powers to act before service reservoirs, pumping stations or CSO outfalls reach critical condition. Measures will target reduced pollution incidents and lower household bills, signalling tougher performance requirements for leakage control, storm overflow management and long‑term asset resilience.

IStructE has released the Manual for the design of bamboo structures to ISO 22156:2021, a 10‑chapter structural engineering guide covering grading and mechanical properties, seismic and wind design, shear walls, durability and connection design for permanent bamboo buildings up to two storeys. Authored by INBAR Bamboo Construction Task Force members David Trujillo, Kent Harries, Sebastian Kaminski and Luis Felipe Lopez, the manual addresses bamboo supply chains and project management from sourcing through to detailed design. The publication formalises design provisions including fire considerations, aiming to make engineered bamboo a credible low‑carbon option in mainstream practice.

Regulatory uncertainty around approvals and land access is emerging as a major bottleneck for Australia’s critical minerals sector, prompting the Australian Drilling Industry Association (ADIA) to urge the Federal Government to streamline overlapping state–federal processes. ADIA is pushing for clearer, faster pathways for exploration drilling permits, native title and environmental approvals to support projects targeting lithium, rare earths and other battery metals. For geotechnical and drilling contractors, the message is that mobilisation schedules, rig utilisation and investment in new equipment will hinge increasingly on predictable regulatory timeframes rather than purely geological risk.

Englobe Corporation has acquired Sudbury-based BESTECH Canada Ltd, a multidisciplinary engineering firm founded in 1995, to expand its mining engineering and environmental services portfolio. The deal adds BESTECH’s underground mine design, electrical and automation engineering, and digital solutions capabilities to Englobe’s existing geotechnical, tailings and environmental remediation work. Englobe positions the acquisition as strengthening support for sustainable resource development and critical minerals projects across Canada and potentially other key mining jurisdictions.

Bringing climate readiness into practice is framed around Westminster’s first National Emergency Briefing on the climate and nature crisis, where infrastructure leaders were urged to treat 1.5°C overshoot, compound flooding and heat stress as near-term design conditions rather than distant scenarios. Discussion focused on embedding climate risk into asset management plans, revising design standards for bridges, rail corridors and drainage to cope with more frequent exceedance events, and accelerating nature-based solutions alongside hard defences. For engineers, the message is to prioritise adaptive pathways, stress-testing of critical networks and cross-sector emergency planning.

A collaborative project to maintain the Victorian Bateman Dam has secured the 2025 Fleming Award for excellence in geotechnical engineering. The team focused on improving dam resilience, likely involving upgrades to the embankment, foundation seepage control and spillway performance to meet current reservoir safety standards for extreme flood and seismic loading. For practitioners, the award signals continued industry emphasis on extending the life of ageing UK dams through targeted ground engineering and risk-based asset management rather than full replacement.

BP and Equinor have placed a £5M order for about 7,000t of steel from a Chinese supplier for the Net Zero Teesside carbon capture and storage project, drawing strong criticism from industry body UK Steel. The contract covers structural steel for key CCS infrastructure on Teesside, rather than sourcing from UK mills such as those at Port Talbot or Scunthorpe. The move raises concerns over domestic capacity utilisation, embedded carbon in imported steel, and procurement policy on major UK low‑carbon projects.

The Institution of Civil Engineers’ Research and Development Enabling Fund is backing early-stage ideas in areas such as sustainability, safety and construction efficiency that are not yet ready for conventional commercial or government funding. Typical projects include novel low-carbon materials, improved temporary works methods and digital tools for asset monitoring, with support aimed at de-risking concepts to the point where they can attract larger grants or private investment. For practitioners, the fund offers a route to test innovative design approaches, site techniques or data-driven maintenance strategies using modest, targeted R&D finance.

The UK has pledged an additional £20M to repair and protect Ukraine’s war‑damaged energy infrastructure as the two countries mark the first anniversary of their “100 Year Partnership”. Funding is expected to support rapid repair of high‑voltage transmission lines, substations and distribution networks repeatedly targeted by missile and drone strikes, alongside hardening works such as blast‑resistant transformer enclosures and decentralised backup generation. For civil and electrical engineers, the package signals continued demand for resilient substation design, grid reconfiguration strategies and modular replacement components suitable for deployment in active conflict zones.

BME Metallurgy is promoting “green chemistry” in hydrometallurgy by redesigning reagent suites and process flows to cut hazardous residues and improve metal recovery in leach and solvent extraction circuits. The approach integrates mine-to-plant chemistry control, including optimised pH and redox management, reduced cyanide and acid consumption, and tighter speciation control in pregnant leach solutions. For operations, this signals closer collaboration between metallurgists and mine planners on reagent selection, water balance, and tailings chemistry to meet stricter environmental and permitting constraints.

Construction is underway on Fortescue’s Nullagine wind project in Western Australia’s Pilbara, a key element of its plan to eliminate fossil diesel from its mining operations and reach net zero Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030. The project will integrate large-scale wind generation with existing Pilbara Energy Connect infrastructure, which already links multiple iron ore mines via a high-voltage transmission network and gas/solar assets. For mine planners and electrical engineers, the move signals accelerating design requirements for grid‑stabilising renewables, storage, and load management on remote, heavy-industry microgrids.

Mining companies in 2026 face ESG risk dominated by geopolitical fragmentation, with Russia’s war in Ukraine, Middle East conflict and African coups driving sanctions exposure, trade route disruption and board‑level scenario planning on supply chains and project delivery. Tailings governance is shifting from voluntary to quasi‑regulatory, as ICMM reports 67% GISTM conformance, the UK High Court’s Samarco ruling widens negligence exposure, and the World Mine Tailings Failures database projects 13 catastrophic failures by 2029. Simultaneously, ISSB IFRS S2 climate disclosure, GRI 14: Mining Sector 2024 and TNFD uptake by 730+ organisations, including 179 financial institutions with $22 trillion in assets, are turning climate, water, land disturbance and biodiversity into hard conditions for capital and permitting.

Krypton trapped in zircon grains from ancient Australian beach sands has been used by Curtin University’s Timescales of Mineral Systems Group, with the Universities of Göttingen and Cologne, as a “cosmic clock” to quantify how long sediments stayed near the surface before burial. Measurements of cosmogenic krypton show that under tectonically stable conditions with high sea levels, erosion rates drop sharply and sediments can be stored and reworked for millions of years in river basins, coastlines and continental shelves. The work links prolonged sediment storage to the concentration of durable heavy minerals, helping explain Australia’s large mineral sand deposits and offering new constraints for resource prospectivity models under changing climate and sea-level regimes.

Kinross Gold has approved three US projects—Round Mountain Phase X, Bald Mountain Redbird 2 (Nevada) and the Kettle River–Curlew restart (Washington)—aimed at adding about 3 million oz between 2028 and 2038 and holding group output near 2 million oz per year. Round Mountain will shift to 3,000 t/d bulk underground mining of 11 Mt at 3.2 g/t (1.2 Moz) with initial capex of US$400 million, while Curlew will feed the 1,800 t/d Kettle River mill using dry-stack tailings and US$485 million upfront spend. Bald Mountain’s Redbird 2 pushback and five satellite pits will leverage existing leach infrastructure to deliver roughly 155,000 oz per year to 2031, with a US$490 million build and a SART plant to handle higher-copper ore.

First Quantum Minerals is preparing to process about 38 million tonnes of stockpiled ore at the shuttered Cobre Panama mine, expected to yield roughly 70,000 tonnes of copper and take about one year once permits are issued. The site’s 300 MW power plant is being progressively recommissioned, with one 150 MW unit already at design capacity and a second unit due online this month, currently supplying around 120 MW for preservation works and the national grid. Processing the stockpile will add about 700 jobs to the existing 1,600-strong workforce and provide tailings facility feed while mitigating acid rock drainage risks.

Bridgwater’s £249M Tidal Barrier has undergone a “design efficiency review” by the Environment Agency, leading to design modifications intended to keep costs within budget while retaining the scheme’s original standard of tidal flood protection. The review focuses on optimising key structural and mechanical elements of the barrier system rather than altering the protection level for Bridgwater and surrounding low-lying areas. For designers and contractors, the move signals closer scrutiny of whole-life cost, constructability and value engineering on major UK flood defence infrastructure.

South Eastern Railway has started trialling solar‑powered flood‑warning cameras at five high‑risk locations on its network to cut weather‑related disruption and speed up drainage interventions. The units combine live video with water‑level monitoring and remote communications, allowing control rooms to verify track inundation and blocked culverts in real time without sending inspection teams onto the line. For civil and permanent way engineers, the trial points to wider use of low‑power, off‑grid monitoring at known flooding pinch points, supporting quicker line block decisions and targeted drainage upgrades.

Kier Construction is set to secure a £21.7m contract from the City of Edinburgh Council to retrofit Craigmillar Court and Peffermill Court, two 15-storey 1968 tower blocks each containing 57 two-bedroom flats with no existing insulation. The works include extensive external wall insulation, flat-by-flat mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) to address damp and mould, and new fire doors plus sprinkler systems in every dwelling. Each block will also gain a dedicated firefighting lift and upgraded security via CCTV across all stairwells and common lobby landings.

US lawmakers have introduced a bipartisan bill to create a $2.5 billion Strategic Resilience Reserve for critical minerals, with a seven-member board empowered to buy, store and sell materials such as rare earths, lithium, graphite and cobalt across US facilities. The reserve would prioritise recycled feedstock but also accept mined material, recycle sale proceeds back into operations, and allow allied countries to join with contributions of at least $100 million. Proponents aim to counter China’s control of about 60% of mined rare earths and most downstream processing, and to anchor a Western price benchmark for currently thinly traded minerals.

Amazon Web Services will be the first offtaker for copper produced using Rio Tinto venture Nuton’s proprietary bioleaching technology at the Johnson Camp mine in Arizona, under a two-year supply deal for US data centres. The open-pit, heap-leach operation, run by Gunnison Copper, has a planned 15–20 year life and 25 million lb/year capacity, with Nuton’s process using microorganisms to leach sulphide ores and eliminating milling, tailings, smelting and refining. Nuton reports up to 85% recovery, potential 80% water and 60% carbon reductions, while AWS will provide cloud analytics to optimise acid and water use and speed scale-up across different ore bodies.

Arca Climate Technologies and Giga Metals have signed a 10-year agreement, dated 9 January, giving Arca exclusive access to tailings and waste rock at the Turnagain nickel project in British Columbia, jointly advanced with Mitsubishi Corporation. Arca will evaluate in-situ and ex-situ mineral carbonation of ultramafic mine wastes for up to 220 Mt of carbon dioxide removal, using industrial mineralisation processes integrated with planned tailings storage. The work could materially affect tailings design, waste rock handling and long-term closure strategies for the large-scale nickel sulphide operation.

Rio Tinto has signed a two-year strategic collaboration with Amazon Web Services under which AWS will purchase the first copper produced using Rio’s Nuton® bioleaching technology from the recently commissioned industrial-scale operation at the Johnson Camp copper mine in Arizona, USA. Nuton targets low-grade and complex sulphide ores using proprietary bioleach chemistry and bacterial consortia to recover copper from waste and tailings that are uneconomic with conventional heap leach or flotation. The deal gives Nuton an anchor offtake customer and an early commercial reference for scaling the technology to other brownfield copper sites.

Multotec’s GV Cyclones are being promoted for above-ground tailings deposition in Tailings Storage Facilities, targeting tighter regulatory demands on water recovery and beach stability. The cyclones are engineered to produce a coarser underflow for steeper, more stable tailings beaches while maximising overflow water recovery for return to the plant, reducing fresh water intake. For operators constrained to surface TSFs, the key technical appeal is controlled particle size distribution and deposition geometry that can be tuned to site-specific geotechnical and hydrological conditions.

Transport Scotland is launching a £1.94bn multi‑lot framework to complete the remaining A9 dualling packages between Perth and Inverness, covering the last single‑carriageway sections of this 177km strategic corridor. The framework is expected to bundle design and construction for complex rural stretches with challenging geology, structures and junction upgrades, favouring Tier 1 contractors with major highways, structures and ground engineering capability. Contractors should anticipate long linear works with traffic management on live carriageways, significant earthworks, rock cuttings and drainage upgrades in a sensitive Highland environment.

Veolia and SBM Offshore have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop floating production units (FPUs) that integrate Veolia’s advanced reverse osmosis desalination systems with SBM’s offshore platform engineering. The FPUs are aimed at supplying freshwater to offshore and coastal industrial users, including remote mining operations constrained by onshore water scarcity and limited pipeline corridors. For mine planners and process engineers, the concept signals potential new options for securing process water without large terrestrial intakes, dams or long-distance transfer schemes.

Komatsu Europe is adding the 2.5‑tonne PC26E‑6 battery-electric mini excavator to its line-up, sitting between the 2‑tonne PC20E and 3.5‑tonne PC33E‑6 for urban, indoor and environmentally sensitive work. The PC26E‑6 delivers 15.8 kW, an operating weight of 2,655 kg and a bucket capacity of 0.035–0.085 m³, targeting typical 2–3 tonne class applications. It can be charged from a standard electricity supply without dedicated high-capacity infrastructure, with Komatsu emphasising fast charging and smooth performance to slot into existing diesel-based fleets.

Root-Power has secured planning permission on appeal for a £45m, 100 MW battery energy storage system on the banks of the River Soar near Kegworth, connecting into local grid infrastructure as Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power station is phased out. To address Environment Agency flood concerns, the BESS compound will be raised above ground level to allow floodwater to pass beneath, with an additional sunken storage tank providing extra attenuation volume. The scheme is designed for a 15–20 year operating life, targeting local peak-shaving, frequency support and improved grid stability.

Building materials producer Alumasc has appointed Pamela Bingham as chief executive from 31 March 2026, succeeding Paul Hooper after his 25-year tenure leading the group. Bingham, currently at seals and bearings specialist Eriks UK & Ireland as CEO, previously headed Glen Dimplex Heating & Ventilation and held senior roles at CRH, Weir Group and Rotork, bringing direct experience in industrial components and HVAC. Alumasc’s board is signalling continued focus on sustainable building products and decarbonisation-oriented solutions as the core of its next growth phase.

Codelco’s Ministro Hales Division in Chile has secured unanimous approval from Antofagasta’s COEVA for its Future Development EIA, extending mine life from 2026 to 2054 on a planned investment of US$2.8 billion and enabling higher copper production. The long-life plan will require expanded open pit and underground works, new waste and tailings handling capacity, and upgrades to existing concentrator and smelting circuits. Geotechnical and environmental teams now face multi-decade commitments on pit slope stability, tailings stewardship and water management under tighter Chilean regulatory scrutiny.