(Like what you’re reading? Get our news recap delivered straight to your inbox each Friday.)

Welcome back to your Friday mining news recap. Between Newmont’s US$10-billion acquisition of Goldcorp and a spate of minerals research and technology launches, it was a busy news week. In headlines: Newmont Goldcorp will be the world’s biggest gold miner, a Canadian was found dead after being abducted at a Progress Minerals site and Vancouver Island University researchers want to use machine learning to identify mineral-rich deposits in Canada’s north.

Newmont Mining is acquiring Goldcorp for US$10 billion, which will create the largest gold company in the world. The merging of the two miners into what is currently being called Newmont Goldcorp will be led by Newmont CEO Gary Goldberg, and will have assets in North and South America, Australia and Ghana. 

The blockbuster news, which comes months after Barrick and Rangold’s US$5.4 billion merger in September, has industry watchers thinking the gold mining sector could be kicking off a flurry of M&A activity. And it’s never too early to start guessing who could be next: according to Reuters, analysts and portfolio managers believe Newcrest, Kinross and B2Gold Corp could be the next companies to partner up with a rival.

Geologist Kirk Woodman was found dead after being abducted on Tuesday by a dozen gunmen at a Progress Minerals mining site in Burkina Faso. Woodman, a Canadian with more than 30 years’ experience in mining, was taken near the border with Niger, which is “under growing threat from armed jihadists,” CBC reported. Progress Minerals CEO Adam Spencer said the company was “heartbroken by the tragic loss.”

Activist shareholder Waterton Global Resource Management put forward a slate of eight director nominees for Hudbay Minerals’ board, and announced it would nominate former Nevsun Resources CEO Peter Kukielski to lead the company. Waterton also nominated former Global Risk Institute CEO Richard Nesbitt as board chair.

A Western University professor is leading a team of researchers to create instruments that will analyze mineral and rock structures on Mars. The team, picked by the Canadian Space Agency, will develop a mini in-situ x-ray diffractometer to determine the minerology and crystallization history of Martian rocks, Global News reported.

Researchers at Vancouver Island University are developing a mapping method that could help identify mineral-rich deposits in northern Canada. The researchers want to use a machine learning algorithm to easily detect glacial landforms called eskers on digital maps. Eskers are deposits of gravel and sand, and are prime landforms for the prospecting of minerals such as diamonds.

NORCAT and Glencore’s Sudbury Integrated Nickel Operations launched a technology innovation program on Thursday that will allow Glencore to bring more emerging technologies into its operations and “accelerate the rate of technology adoption in the mining industry.”

IBM and Vancouver-based mining technology company MineHub are creating a blockchain-based mining supply chain application. The application will be first tested out at Goldcorp’s Peñasquito project in Mexico, and will allow users to track information on ore concentrate as it moves from the mine to the market. The partnership has the backing of several major companies, including Goldcorp and Wheaton Precious Metals.

To cap the week, Goldcorp’s annual Disrupt Mining challenge announced its six 2019 semi-finalists. The three finalists who will present at the Dragon’s Den-style live finale will be named in February. Among the six innovative ideas are increasing site security with biometrics, reusing mine tailings to create solar power reflectors, and a high-pressure water jet that can break down off-the-road tires with water pressures of between 2,000 and 3,000 bars. If you’re curious, here’s what happens when you wash a car with a 3,000-bar power washer.