Between late September and 23 October 2026, Metso reported a 79% rise in Minerals equipment orders and FLS signed three grinding mill packages in five days. Montage Gold poured first gold at Koné, PLS approved a new spodumene plant at Pilgangoora, and Phoenix Tailings chose Rochester, New York, for a commercial rare earth separation facility. China’s suspension of its October 2025 rare earth export controls, which include controls on processing technology, runs to 10 November. We also catch up on three early-September items published after our August 2026 update.
October 2026 mineral processing news at a glance
| Date (2026) | Company or event | Development | Process area |
|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Sep | Montage Gold, Koné | First gold pour, about 1,140 oz | Gold oxide circuit |
| 28 Sep | China Ministry of Commerce | Confirmed the US-China trade truce extension to 10 January 2027 | Trade policy |
| 2 Oct | Freeport, Grasberg | Q3 mill throughput about 140,000 t/d, 67% of normal | Copper concentrator |
| 5 Oct | Metso | Thickener modernisation order in Chile, about €16 million | Dewatering |
| 8 to 12 Oct | FLS | Three crushing and grinding orders worth DKK 760 million | Comminution |
| 13 Oct | Cerro de Pasco Resources | Won rights to reprocess the Quiulacocha tailings, Peru | Tailings reprocessing |
| 16 Oct | PLS, Pilgangoora | Approved the A$1.9 billion P2000 expansion | Spodumene concentration |
| 18 to 22 Oct | IMPC 2026, Cape Town | XXXII International Mineral Processing Congress | Conference |
| 19 to 21 Oct | Mill Operators 2026, Brisbane | AusIMM operators’ conference | Conference |
| 20 Oct | Phoenix Tailings | $375 million rare earth separation plant in Rochester, New York | Rare earth separation |
| 20 Oct | Metso | Agreed to acquire Italbronze, Brazil | Crusher aftermarket |
| 21 Oct | Weir | Named Marc Cameron as Minerals Division president | Leadership |
| 22 Oct | Metso | Q3 orders up 28%, Minerals equipment orders up 79% | Equipment market |
Grinding and crushing orders: Metso, FLS and Weir
Metso Q3 2026: Minerals equipment orders up 79%
Metso published its interim report for January to September 2026 on 22 October. Group orders rose 28% to €1,614 million, or 24% on an organic, constant-currency basis. Minerals orders grew 34%, Minerals equipment orders grew 79% and Minerals aftermarket orders grew 11%. Chief executive Sami Takaluoma named grinding and crushing solutions as the main drivers of equipment growth and said demand came from across commodities, regions and product areas. Metso’s Q3 order intake included one €90 million copper-related order.
Sales rose 3% to €1,373 million, adjusted EBITA reached €230 million at a 16.8% margin, and the order backlog grew 20% to €3,883 million. Metso expects market activity in Minerals to hold at the current level over the next six months. Takaluoma said mining customers run existing plants at high utilisation as they prepare investments for longer-term demand. Our guide to grinding mills in mineral processing covers the SAG, ball, stirred-mill and HPGR circuits behind these orders.
FLS signs three mill packages in five days
FLS announced three comminution orders between 8 and 12 October with a combined value of DKK 760 million. FLS booked all three in the third quarter, left its 2026 guidance unchanged and did not name the customers.
- Northern Chile copper expansion, DKK 360 million (8 October): a 1,600 x 3,300 TSUV gyratory crusher with a 1,500 kW motor, which FLS describes as the world’s largest, plus one 40 ft x 29 ft SAG mill and three 28 ft x 48 ft ball mills. The four mills carry more than 90 MW of combined installed power on gearless mill drives. FLS says the SAG mill will have the world’s largest SAG mill trommel screen and the ball mills will be the largest installed in Chile. FLS expects installation and commissioning in late 2029 and early 2030.
- New grinding line at a Chilean copper mine, DKK 175 million (9 October): one 24/17 HPGR and one 27 ft x 46 ft, 19.6 MW gearless ball mill, plus installation, commissioning, start-up support and agreements for spare parts and extended on-site services. FLS scheduled installation and commissioning for 2027.
- North American gold project, DKK 225 million (12 October): a shell-supported SAG mill (10.4 m diameter x 5.3 m EGL) and a ball mill (7.9 m x 12.8 m EGL), each with dual reducer gear drives, plus FLS Armour mill liners. FLS expects installation and commissioning during 2028.
FLS says its HPGRs create microcracks that weaken the ore and cut the power needed in downstream grinding. Our comminution guide covers the energy principles behind crushing and grinding circuit design.
Weir names Marc Cameron as Minerals Division president
Weir announced on 21 October that Marc Cameron will join as president of its Minerals Division on 26 October and sit on the group executive. Cameron’s latest role was senior vice president of resource industries at Caterpillar, where he led the global commercial organisation and expanded its data-driven mining technology and software portfolio. He joined Caterpillar in 2020 after close to two decades at Rio Tinto, including roles as managing director of Rio Tinto Kennecott and president and chief executive of the Diavik Diamond Mine. He will work from Fort Worth in the United States. Weir chief executive Andrew Neilson welcomed the appointment.
Metso adds pump and bronze capacity
Metso said in its Q3 report that it acquired Valmet’s peristaltic hose pump and progressive cavity pump technologies. Valmet announced the sale in August with a target closing date of 1 October. The pumps, which Valmet marketed under the Flowrox brand, move into Metso’s slurry pump range. Valmet keeps the Flowrox trademark and its Flowrox valves.
On 20 October Metso announced an agreement to acquire Italbronze, a maker of bronze alloy components in the Greater São Paulo area that has supplied Metso for more than 30 years. About 470 employees will join Metso at closing, which Metso expects by the end of 2026, subject to antitrust approval. Metso says the deal secures a critical manufacturing capability for its crushing aftermarket business and improves spare parts availability.
Plant start-ups, expansions and ramp-ups
Koné pours first gold through its oxide circuit
- Commodity: Gold
- Location: Côte d’Ivoire
- Milestone: First gold pour on 26 September 2026
- Next step: Hard-rock comminution circuit, due in Q2 2027
Montage Gold poured about 1,140 oz of gold at Koné on 26 September, ahead of the original Q2 2027 schedule, according to the company’s 27 September release. Operators first fed ore to the oxide circuit on 8 September, and the plant has treated more than 400,000 t since then. Montage targets commercial production from the oxide circuit in Q4 2026 and says construction of the hard-rock comminution circuit remains on budget for completion in Q2 2027. The company credits the early start to the added oxide circuit and to self-performed construction. Koné is now the ninth operating gold mine in Côte d’Ivoire, and Montage expects about 1,500 permanent roles once the operation ramps up. For more on how geology shapes gold flowsheets, see our comparison of five gold plant designs.
PLS approves P2000 and the Jimmagunya plant
- Commodity: Lithium (spodumene concentrate)
- Location: Pilgangoora, Western Australia
- Investment: A$1.9 billion
- Process: 9 Mt/y dry plant, 6.3 Mt/y wet plant and a tailings filtration facility
- Target start-up: September quarter 2029
PLS approved the P2000 project on 16 October, the largest investment decision in its history. The new Jimmagunya plant will stand beside the existing Pilgan plant as the third major processing facility at Pilgangoora and lift capacity to about 2 Mt/y of spodumene concentrate. PLS says the new configuration lets it recover about 67 Mt of mineralised material that earlier plans treated as waste. Construction should take about two and a half years, and PLS then plans a ramp-up of about six months. In August, TOMRA won a contract for 22 XRT ore sorters for the project’s secondary and tertiary sorting stages. Our guide to sensor-based ore sorting explains how XRT sorters reject waste before milling.
Grasberg mill throughput reaches two-thirds of normal
Freeport reported on 2 October that Grasberg mill throughput averaged about 140,000 t of ore per day in Q3 2026, around 67% of normal rates before the September 2025 mud rush. The Grasberg Block Cave supplied about 70,000 t/d of that feed. Freeport said dry weather favoured mining. The same conditions created challenges in the milling process, which the company says it manages with limited impact so far. The PT Freeport Indonesia smelter in East Java restarted in late August. Freeport expects to reach 80% of capacity in mid-2027 and approach full capacity by the end of 2027. The company also plans a decision by year-end on doubling the capacity of its Bagdad operation in Arizona.
Rare earth separation and critical minerals policy
Phoenix Tailings picks Rochester for a $375 million separation plant
New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on 20 October that Phoenix Tailings will build a $375 million commercial rare earth separation facility at Eastman Business Park in Rochester. At full rate the 500,000 sq ft plant will separate about 18,000 tons of rare earth material a year, enough for about 3,000 tons of rare earth metals at the company’s downstream metallization sites. Phoenix plans to start some operations in 2027 and reach full production in 2028. The company recovers rare earths from mining waste and other industrial sources.
Phoenix holds a $500 million conditional loan commitment from the Office of Strategic Capital at the US Department of War, still subject to review, and a $66 million Department of Energy grant. New York State offered up to $3 million in performance-based tax credits. The governor’s office put China’s share of global rare earth processing at about 90%.
China’s rare earth export controls: 10 November or 10 January?
China suspended its October 2025 package of rare earth export controls until 10 November 2026. The package added more controlled elements, controls on technologies used to refine rare earths and make magnets, and an extraterritorial rule for foreign-made products that contain Chinese-origin rare earths or use Chinese rare earth technology, as Todd Cort summarised on 16 October. China’s April 2025 licensing regime for seven medium and heavy rare earths stayed in force throughout.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on 23 September that the two countries would extend their trade truce to 10 January 2027, and China’s Ministry of Commerce confirmed the extension on 28 September. Under the original truce, China agreed to pause its rare earth export controls. Cort notes that some analysts read the extension as moving the rare earth suspension to January, and others point out that the ministry’s announcement did not mention rare earths.
Tailings, water and dewatering
Cerro de Pasco Resources wins Quiulacocha tailings rights
Peru’s state-owned Activos Mineros (AMSAC) awarded Cerro de Pasco Resources the mineral and surface rights to tailings in the Quiulacocha tailings storage facility through a public auction, Mining Weekly reported on 13 October. Once the parties sign definitive agreements, the Québec-based company can combine the tailings with its El Metalurgista concession, which holds silver-rich tailings and stockpiles. The Quiulacocha tailings hold a polymetallic inventory that includes several critical minerals. Cerro de Pasco continues technical work toward a maiden mineral resource estimate and feasibility-level studies. Our tailings management guide covers reprocessing alongside storage, water control and closure.
Metso repowers three thickeners in Chile
Metso announced a thickener modernisation order worth about €16 million at a large Chilean mining operation on 5 October, one of the largest services orders it has received for thickener work. Metso will retrofit three of its high-rate thickeners with new SCD 4000 drives, new mechanisms and a redesigned feed system. Metso designed the upgrade to handle higher throughput, raise underflow density and recover more water, and booked the full value in Q3 2026. Our guide to thickeners, filters and centrifuges covers the dewatering basics.
Conferences: IMPC 2026 in Cape Town and Mill Operators 2026 in Brisbane
The Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy hosted the XXXII International Mineral Processing Congress (IMPC 2026) at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from 18 to 22 October, under the theme “Empowering a future-fit mineral processing industry”.
Reg Radford of Gold Fields chaired AusIMM’s Mill Operators Conference in Brisbane from 19 to 21 October. The program opened with a panel on AI and data visualisation in processing plants and listed papers on:
- Reliability improvements on Cadia’s 40 ft SAG mill, and fine particle recovery at Cadia
- Success factors in HPGR circuit ramp-up and operation
- Coarse flotation commissioning at BHP’s Carrapateena and a Jameson Cell rougher scalper at Prominent Hill
- AI-driven flotation optimisation at MMG’s Dugald River mine
- Design, commissioning and operation of the BIOX plant at Sabodala-Massawa
- Sensor-based ore sorting at Sky Metals’ Tallebung tin project
The program also scheduled a Day 2 keynote on comminution fundamentals by Brian Putland of Orway Mineral Consultants, titled “Cyclones don’t grind”. For classification basics, see our guide to hydrocyclones and classification.
Catch-up: early September highlights
- Skouries first concentrate (8 September): Eldorado Gold produced first copper-gold concentrate at Skouries in northern Greece, with crushing, grinding, flotation and tailings and concentrate thickening in operation. The ore stockpile exceeded 4.6 Mt above reserve grade. Eldorado targets commercial production in Q4 2026 and expects average output of about 140,000 oz of gold and 67 Mlb of copper a year over the mine life.
- Metso Sampo Cell (10 September): Metso launched a coarse particle flotation cell that feeds slurry into the froth phase under low turbulence. The cell runs without feed classification, fluidisation water or extra concentrate dewatering. Metso says an industrial-scale unit has run 24/7 in scavenger duty at a Chilean copper mine since March 2026 and raised total plant recovery. Compare cell types in our guide to froth flotation technologies.
- Weir HPGRs for Akyem (8 September): Weir won an order for two ENDURON HPGRs at Zijin’s Golden Ridge operation at the Akyem gold mine in Ghana. The HPGRs will crush pebbles to debottleneck a SAG and ball mill circuit that harder ore has constrained. Akyem has a throughput capacity of 8.6 Mt/y.
Dates to watch
- 27 October: Freeport releases Q3 2026 results and holds a conference call.
- 10 November: China’s suspension of its October 2025 rare earth export controls ends unless Beijing extends it.
- End of 2026: Metso’s target for closing the Italbronze deal, and Freeport’s target for a Bagdad expansion decision.