Rio Tinto commits $100m to regional worker housing

By Chloe Coutinho

Tuesday, 28 April 2026

NewsPeople & Workforce

Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) will invest $100m to support the delivery of more than 500 homes for regional frontline workers, as part of the WA Government’s Seven Cities Vision for regional WA.

The MOU supports Metallium’s plan to develop a national network of e-waste processing facilities, strategically located near major e-waste collection hubs, rapidly expanding U.S. data centre industrial parks and regional industrial corridors with strong logistics and waste generation.

This marks BHP’s third renewable electricity supply arrangement in South Australia in the past four years and its second renewable electricity supply arrangement with Neoen.

BHP’s Copper SA gets largest renewable electricity deal

BHP’s Copper SA gets largest renewable electricity deal BHP has entered into its third and biggest renewable electricity supply arrangement for Copper SA. Under this baseload electricity arrangement, 100MW of renewable electricity will be supplied to power BHP’s Copper SA province, including the Olympic Dam mine, smelter and refinery as well as the Carrapateena and Prominent Hill operations. It will be supported by output from the first 300MW of Neoen’s Goyder North Wind Farm, reinforced by their new Goyder Battery with a minimum capacity of 200MW/9800MWh, and Neoen’s in-house energy management...

In September 2024, Equinox Resources conducted a maiden reconnaissance sampling campaign at the Alturas antimony project to evaluate the potential for high-grade antimony and associated polymetallic mineralisation along the extensive shear zone.

Equinox Resources: high-grade antimony at Alturas

Equinox Resources: high-grade antimony at Alturas Rock chip samples from Equinox Resources (ASX: EQN) Alturas antimony project in British Columbia, Canada, have returned ultra-high-grade assays, notably 69.98% antimony. The company has increased its total land holding interests to 6.31km2 on the Alturas project. Historically, 105t of antimony ore, averaging 57.20% antimony has been sold from the Alps-Alturas antimony mine on this property. Since the execution of the option agreement for the Alturas project, the price for antimony has reached $54,000 (US$36,000) per metric ton...

The program represents the first step in Rapid’s broader exploration strategy across its newly acquired NSW silver portfolio.

Rapid Critical Metals drilling approved

Rapid Critical Metals drilling approved Rapid Critical Metals (ASX: RCM) has been granted for a diamond drilling program at the company’s flagship Webbs silver project in northern NSW. The project was recently acquired as part of Rapid’s strategic consolidation of silver assets in the prolific New England Fold Belt. The initial drill campaign will comprise diamond holes for approximately 2000m, designed to upgrade the existing resource to 2025 JORC compliance, improve geological confidence in current resource categories, test highly prospective southern extensions and investigate a potential parallel lode to the west. These targets were refined following the completion...

(Image source: WesTrac) Pictured are WesTrac people and culture general manager Kylie Newton and WesTrac learning and development head Jeremy Manuel.

WesTrac awarded Large Employer of the Year

WesTrac awarded Large Employer of the Year WesTrac has been recognised for its industry-leading training and educational services, receiving the 2024 Large Employer of the Year award at the WA Training Awards. This award acknowledges excellence and high-level performance by large, registered organisations in vocational education and training. WesTrac (WA) has delivered more than 6,000 training sessions to its employees and more than 1,800 to external customers. Additionally, the company currently trains 180 metro and regional WesTrac apprentices and a further 200 customer apprentices. Students and apprentices attend the organisation’s purpose-built training facilities, including the...