Korea completes record setting rail excavation 2015-07-30 It is the third longest railway tunnel in the world - after the 57km Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland and the 54km Seikan Tunnel in Japan - and it took three years and five months in Korea to reach the final breakthrough of the 50.3km lo...

First TBM launches for Riyadh Metro Line 1 2015-07-16 The first of seven TBMs is launched for US$10 billion construction of Riyadh Metro Lines 1 and 2 (Blue and Green Lines).

Entries file in for ITA Awards 2015 2015-07-03 Since registration opening on 10 April, more than 30 nominations have been filed for the 2015 awards that will recognise excellence within the tunnelling and underground space industry. The entries will compete in one of nine categories tha...

Landmark breakthrough for UK Crossrail 2015-06-17 TBM excavation of the 21km of twin running Crossrail tunnels in London is complete. The last of eight 7.1m diameter Herrenknecht machines, TBM Victoria, broke through the head wall at Farringdon Station to complete the western drives and en...

Working Groups report progress at WTC 2015 2015-06-10 Eight new documents from the various Working Groups of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) are published this year and presented during the World Tunnel Congress in Dubrovnik, Croatia, in May. Three of the 1...

Mitsubishi TBM business consolidation 2015-06-03 Japanese Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is reportedly preparing to consolidate its TBM manufacturing business by teaming up with rival Japanese TBM manufacturer IHI and steel manufacturing giant JFE Engineering.

TBMs through on long hydro drive in Ecuador 2015-05-27 The second of two Herrenknecht TBMs is through to complete mechanized tunnelling on the headrace tunnel at the Coca Codo Sinclair hydropower scheme in Ecuador, South America. The 24.8km headrace, under construction by contractor Sinohydro C...

Iron ore price surges on Chinese import growth 2015-04-15 After weeks of relentless selling the spot price of iron ore bounced back on Monday after trade data from China showed imports of the steelmaking material continued to grow.

TBM launched for Laos headrace 2015-04-10 TBM operations are under way for the Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Hydropower Project in Laos. The 5.74m diameter Double Shield hard rock machine, manufactured in China by Australian manufacturer Terratec, will complete 11.8km of the 13.7km upper headr...

These are the top 10 global mining trends for 2015 2015-03-24 Price volatility, geopolitical turmoil, rising costs, declining grades and a general lack of financing will make of 2015 another challenging year for the global resources sector, the annual “tracking the trends” report by Deloitte shows.