Chief financial officer Sherry Duhe has become Newcrest’s interim chief executive while the company searches for a new leader.

Rio Tinto now has a 66% direct ownership over the world’s largest known copper and gold deposit, located in Mongolia.

Lithium prices, expected to stay at record highs, have the world’s second-biggest miner actively looking for lithium acquisitions.

The miner is said to be at the centre of a bidding war between Jiangxi, China’s largest copper miner on the one side, and a possible BHP-Newcrest alliance on the other.

BHP will help I-Pulse and its affiliate I-Rox, in which is also taking an equity position, develop technologies that can curb energy use in the mining sector.

The Lulo mine haul consist of 20 diamonds weighing a combined 15.51 carats from just one kimberlite bulk sample.

A new sodium-sulphur battery exhibits super-high capacity and ultra-long life at room temperature.