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Fortescue (ASX: FMG) has commenced construction at its first operational wind development. the Nullagine wind project, in the Pilbara, WA.

Japan’s world-first deep sea mining expedition Last week, a drilling-equipped research vessel, Chikyu, departed Japan’s shores to conduct an experimental extraction of rare earth rich mud from the ocean floor.  The month-long deep sea mining expedition, led by the Japan Agency for Marin-Earth Science and Technology, will target the seabed near Minamitorishima Island and aims to continuously lift about 350t of material each day from 6km below the surface. The mission forms part of Japan’s move to reduce its reliance on Chinese supplies — Japan currently imports more than 70% of its rare earths from China, according to the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security — and commence domestically producing rare earth elements. The relationship between the Japan and China recently further deteriorated when China's commerce ministry-imposed export restriction on dual-use items, including rare earth elements, bound for Tokyo.  Japan began exploring supply chain alternatives and investing heavily into non-China rare earth projects following a dispute with China in 2010 that affected exports.  In 2013, Japanese researchers discovered deep-sea mud containing more than 5,000ppm total rare-earth elements and yttrium (REY) content was discovered in the western North Pacific Ocean within Japan’s exclusive economic zone.  The diverse applications of REY include electric and hybrid vehicles, rechargeable batteries, wind turbines and many medical and military technologies. In 2018, after further investigation, about 16mt of rare earth elements were discovered in the area around Minamitorishima Island — enough to potentially meet global demand for centuries.  The government-supported project has reportedly spent about $380m since its inception. Mining the resource was previously viewed as unviable. However, with geopolitical tensions and rare earth element prices at an all-time high, the project has recaptured global interest.  The Chikyu is expected to return to port on February 14. If successful, Japan plans to launch a full-scale demonstration by February 2027, to showcase its ability to maintain the daily extraction volume, with hopes to commercialise rare earths by 2030.

Hancock Prospecting re-enters Saudi Arabia  Hancock Prospecting has become the first Australian company to enter a joint venture (JV) with Saudi Arabia’s largest miner, Maaden. The Gina Rinehart owned company made a successful bid for five exploration licenses in the Nabita Ad-Duwayhi Gold-Belt, where the Hancock Maaden joint venture will conduct its initial exploration activities. The joint venture will conduct exploration, development, mining, sales and marketing of minerals in licensed areas in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Celebrating the agreement, member of the Hancock team attended the Future Mines Forum in Riyadh during a Round 9 licence award ceremony earlier this month. Hancock prospecting executive chairman Gina Rinehart says the company strives to be the best miner in Australia and will now be working with Saudi Arabia with great enthusiasm.  “Our company group brings substantial experience across exploration, project development and operations — including the rare distinction of building the $15b mega Roy project both on time and on budget, a project built successfully in record time and including some of the world’s largest mining equipment.” Maaden chief executive Bob Wilt says the company has been actively ramping up its exploration efforts across the Kingdom. “Working in partnership with Hancock, this program will speed up discovery,” he said. “It also ensures we can build, develop and operate at pace and scale, all while developing a talent pipeline and a global mineral hub.” In December, Saudi Arabia granted exploration licenses worth $100m to local and international companies, including Hancock Prospecting, for its first mineral belts at Jabal Sayid and Al-Hajjar. These two sites, covering a combined area of 4,788km2, are part of the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources’ efforts to accelerate the exploration and development of the Kingdom’s estimated $2.48t (SR9.3t) in mineral resources.  

Anglo American uses ‘nature’s fingerprint’ at rehabilitated mine sites Anglo American is harnessing cutting-edge DNA technology for use in ecological monitoring and mine rehabilitation across the Bowen Basin in Queensland.Using environmental DNA, also known as eDNA, teams have been collecting microscopic traces of genetic material left behind by plants, animals, bacteria and fungi in soil and water samples across Anglo American’s five steelmaking coal mine sites.In the newest toolkit addition, environment teams are also now collecting DNA from the air using easy-to-deploy sample collection kits — utilising the same science used from forensic investigations — to track native species living in or passing through rehabilitated mining land as well as mining offset areas.Anglo American environmental manager Jason Fittler says the technology was helping his team better understand how biodiversity was returning to formerly mined areas.“Every plant, animal or insect leaves behind tiny fragments of DNA in water, soil or air,” he said.“By analysing those samples, we can build a detailed picture of what species are living in or moving through our rehabilitated sites.“At one site, we detected four species of fish, 13 species of birds and three mammals — all in a single sample without having to physically see them.”In some areas, environmental specialists were taking about 30 samples at a time on each mine site alongside traditional fauna and flora monitoring completed annually.“This method complements our traditional monitoring as we can detect a different range of plants and animals through DNA,” Mr Fittler said.“It’s a non-invasive, efficient and highly accurate way to measure environmental recovery.”The samples are analysed in laboratories where results are matched using national and international genetic databases to confirm species presence and help track biodiversity trends over time.EnviroDNA principal scientist Luke Noble says eDNA allows access to a broad slice of biodiversity — plants, fungi and animals — across marine, freshwater and terrestrial environments.“These generate thousands and thousands of biological indicators to track the restoration process, the condition of the soil and the condition of the broader ecosystem as it transitions back to a more natural state,” he said.“Environmental DNA is pretty much everywhere you look — you just need a method to concentrate it or access it in useful ways.“DNA is unlike other technologies because its power comes from being an indirect detection method. It tells you what has been at or near the site you sampled.“By building up a picture of detections through time, we can have much more confidence about what we’re seeing.“Air eDNA, which is in the research and development phase, is a super exciting new development. It has the potential to do for terrestrial environments what eDNA has already done for aquatic ecosystems.”This method is superior to conventional ecological monitoring which sometimes fails to record individual species if they are not observed during the survey period.“This approach not only reduces the need for disruptive monitoring techniques but also gives us richer insights into how ecosystems are recovering,” Mr Fittler said.“Through DNA sampling, we can detect plants and animals from microscopic skin flakes, a strand of fur, a feather fragment or even a microscopic piece of faeces.“We gather this DNA through soil and water sampling, but we can now also collect DNA through particles passing through the air using a suspended filter, similar to a Chux cleaning cloth in appearance.“When we set these up, we can detect gliders, koalas, bats, dogs, cows — just about anything that comes near the cloth.”This innovation is helping Anglo American deliver world-class environmental outcomes in its land rehabilitation journey.Mr Fittler says one of the most exciting findings so far was the discovery of fish in water ponds created above underground mine subsidence rehabilitation areas.“While the how remains a mystery, finding fish in the ponds we have created on subsided land shows just how incredible nature can be,” he said.Anglo American’s rehabilitation areas have been progressively restored to native vegetation, with eDNA data providing independent verification of ecological progress.“We’re using science to tell the story of nature’s comeback,” Mr Fittler said.“These results show life is returning, and thriving, in the places we once mined.”

EACON hits autonomous haulage milestone in Australia A retrofitted Komatsu HD1500 haul truck has successfully completed its first fully autonomous haulage test cycle at Norton Gold Fields' Mulgarrie mine in WA.The achievement is part of a tri-partite project between EACON Mining Technology, Thiess and Norton Gold Fields, confirming the successful retrofit of autonomy on Komatsu trucks.Prior to the retrofit, the truck had about 20,000 operating hours and was elected as part of the project to broaden asset life.Following a structured series of testing and validation activities, the retrofitted truck, named Jerry, has met the criteria to operate fully autonomously, demonstrating the maturity of EACON's complete autonomous driving system under Australian operating conditions.The first phase of the project demonstrated reliable integration of EACON's independently developed drive-by-wire retrofit kit, consistent vehicle behaviour under autonomous control and effective tuning of control algorithms to match the truck's native operating characteristics.Comprehensive system-level validation was completed across perception, planning, decision-making and vehicle control, confirming the system's readiness for continued on-site testing and subsequent project phases.EACON Mining Australia chief operating officer Elaine Jin says the milestone reflects disciplined execution and close collaboration across all project partners."Achieving this milestone safely and on schedule validates the maturity of our ORCASTRA system, its adaptability to the Australian mining environment and its proven performance on large scale rigid dump trucks,” she said.Thiess assets and autonomy group executive Ryan Kirkwood says the global mining services provider was proud to work in partnership with EACON and Norton Gold Fields to demonstrate how autonomy could be introduced safely across mixed, brownfield fleets."Thiess has implemented, operated and optimised autonomous solutions for haulage fleets, dozer and drill applications globally for close to 15 years,” he said.“We're pleased to bring our experience to this project to support change management and implementation processes, from commissioning through to successful maintenance with our workforce of the future."Supporting fleet expansion and further validation activities, a second Komatsu HD1500 truck, Tom, has also recently completed retrofit works and is making its way to the Mulgarrie site.Norton Gold Fields chief executive Wei Lin says the milestone demonstrates the potential for retrofit autonomous haulage to be safely introduced into active Australian gold mining operations.“The project has progressed in a structured and measured way, with safety and operational readiness at the forefront,” he said.By enabling autonomy across multiple vehicle brands and models, EACON's open, OEM-agnostic autonomy solution provides a practical pathway for upgrading existing mining fleets and facilitates the transition of autonomous haulage from greenfield deployments to scalable brownfield and retrofit operations.

Liebherr-Australia’s fabrication team sets new recordIn December, Liebherr-Australia set a new annual production benchmark when its fabrication team completed its 50th mining excavator bucket for 2025.Completed at the company’s Adelaide, South Australia facility, the achievement marks a 16% increase on the 43 buckets fabricated in 2024.Liebherr-Australia manufactures buckets for its comprehensive range of mining excavators entirely in-house — enabling it to deliver purpose-built attachment solutions engineered specifically for Australian mining conditions, while maintaining full control over quality, safety and delivery timelines.Liebherr-Australia mining fabrication manage Steve Smith says what the Adelaide team’s achievement is outstanding.“As well as setting new manufacturing benchmarks, the team also achieved the highest possible result in our internal global audit for excellence in fabrication and welding, compliance with Liebherr global requirements and rigorous quality standards,” he said.“This outcome reflects the team’s strong governance, technical rigour and commitment to Liebherr’s global quality standards.”Building these 50 buckets involved more than 60 employees across the fabrication team putting in a collective 92,600 productive hours, highlighting both the scale of output required to meet customer demand and the depth of expertise across the workforce.Automated welding technology has been implemented at the Adelaide facility in the form of a collaborative robot, or ‘cobot’, which supports the fabrication team with high precision welding tasks, improving consistency in the welding process while also reducing reliance on manual welding hours.With the introduction of this technology, welding speeds at the Adelaide facility are now six times faster, which saved more than 2000 labour hours in 2025 — the same time it takes to fabricate an entirely new R 9600 bucket.“This investment strengthens Liebherr-Australia’s ability to deliver high-quality attachments at scale, while upholding rigorous quality standards, supporting workforce safety and building long-term fabrication capability,” Mr Smith said.

Terra confirms second PGM discovery Terra Metals (ASX: TM1) has confirmed a second new platinum group metal (PGM) copper-nickel sulphide discovery at the Southwest Prospect within the Dante project.The first shallow RC drillhole reported from SW5 intersects multiple broad zones of high grade PGM mineralisation, with consistent associated copper and nickel.SW5 is located more than 800m from the recently reported SW6 PGM discovery, confirming that high-tenor PGM sulphide mineralisation occurs across multiple, spatially distinct centres within the Southwest area.Terra Metals managing director and chief executive Thomas Line says the confirmation highlights the scale and complexity of the mineral system developing within the Dante project.“The fact that SW5 has intersected a broad, stratigraphically controlled sulphide horizon about 800m from the potential feeder-proximal SW6 discovery demonstrates that mineralisation is not confined to a single point source, but is developing across multiple positions within the same magmatic system,” he said.“Importantly, these Southwest discoveries sit outside our current Dante mineral resource estimate (MRE) and represent potential new, incremental upside to an already substantial polymetallic resource base.“At the same time, our primary focus remains on the systematic growth and de-risking of the existing Dante MRE at Reef 1 and Reef 2, where a large resource upgrade and expansion program is well advanced and extensive metallurgical optimization work is ongoing.“We are deliberately advancing both streams in parallel — continuing to invest in and grow the core Dante resource while methodically assessing new high-impact targets such as Southwest that have the potential to add further scale, optionality and long-term value to the project.”Extensive metallurgical optimisation testwork continues across the Dante MRE in preparation for an upcoming resource update.