Welcome back to your weekly mining news recap. At the end of every week we’ll catch you up on the mining news from CIM Magazine and elsewhere that you might have missed. Among this week’s headlines: Acoustic Zoom pilots its seismic imaging technology at Goldcorp’s Red Lake mine, a Voisey’s Bay announcement is imminent, and Ontario elects Doug Ford as its next premier.

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Kinder Morgan Canada president Ian Anderson and David Safari, the vice-president overseeing the Trans Mountain expansion, are receiving $1.5-million retention bonuses to ensure they stick with the company while the pipeline is being sold to the federal government, the Canadian Press reported on Monday. When Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced that the government had purchased the pipeline, he said it would also be taking on key pipeline staff to ensure the expansion is completed.

B2Gold opened the solar plant at its Otjikoto mine in Namibia on Tuesday. The company said in a statement that the plant is one of the first fully autonomous hybrid plants in the world, and is expected to reduce the mine’s consumption of heavy fuel oil by about 2.3 million litres in 2018.

Disrupt Mining winner Acoustic Zoom finalized its $1-million deal with Goldcorp and landed a pilot project at the company’s Red Lake mine, we reported on Wednesday. The Paradise, Newfoundland-based company’s competition-winning technology allows for seismic imaging within boreholes that reveal overall geology beyond just the rock sample.

Brazilian President Michel Temer will introduce key changes to the country’s mining regulations through an executive order, Reuters reported on Wednesday. The decree will allow Temer to bypass the Brazilian congress, which last year failed to approve similar changes. It is expected to open up about 20,000 exploration areas for auction, where previous permit applications have been abandoned or stalled.

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party, led by Doug Ford, will form a majority government, after winning 76 of 124 seats in the provincial legislature last night. Andrea Horwath’s NDP came away with 40 seats, and the governing Liberal party was reduced to seven seats. The PCs have been big on rhetoric during the campaign, promising to fight the federal government’s carbon pricing backstop plan, develop the Ring of Fire and cut the corporate tax rate, but light on details of what their promises will cost.

The Newfoundland government and Vale have confirmed to CBC that they will be making a “significant” mining announcement about Voisey’s Bay on Monday. The development of an underground mine at the site has been mired in uncertainty since Vale said last year it would review its worldwide operations due to depressed nickel prices, which have since recovered. The company is expected to announce that the project is back on track for development. We’ll cover that announcement on Monday, so check back then for more details.

Introducing innovation into the mining industry is difficult, even when you have a good idea. But Woodgrove Technologies’ co-founders, Glenn Dobby and Glenn Kosick, forged ahead to convince industry leaders of the potential of their staged flotation reactor. Check out the Glenns’ origin story from our May issue, which is now online.

Speaking of stories from the May issue, we also posted our Mining Lore this week, on the deep religious significance that gold and other metals held in ancient Egypt. At that time, mining expeditions were not just motivated by economics and politics, but seen as a necessary religious duty.