Metso will supply an additional secondary crushing package to Grupo Mexico’s La Caridad copper concentrator in Nacozari, Sonora, building on the high-capacity Nordberg MP800 cone crushers ordered in 2025 as the next phase of the plant’s expansion. The integrated secondary crushing solution is designed to materially raise concentrator throughput, with the MP800 units providing high power draw and large feed opening suited to La Caridad’s hard copper ore. For plant and process engineers, the upgrade centres on debottlenecking downstream grinding and improving overall comminution circuit efficiency.

PYBAR Mining Services, a Thiess company, has fired the first cut on an exploration decline portal at Southern Cross Gold’s Sunday Creek gold–antimony project in Victoria, marking the first new decline development in the state in about 20 years. The decline will provide underground access for close-spaced drilling of high-grade gold–stibnite veins rather than relying solely on surface drilling. For geotechnical and mine planning teams, this signals a shift towards underground evaluation of Victorian narrow-vein systems after a long hiatus in new decline development.

Metso is expanding its mill lining Life Cycle Services (LCS) footprint in Asia Pacific, securing two new long-term mill lining agreements in the first half of 2026 and building a pipeline of further contracts. The deals formalise multi-year commitments around liner design, supply and shutdown planning, with performance and reliability targets and transparent wear monitoring built into the scope. For concentrator operators, this signals more outsourced responsibility for liner life, mill availability and reline scheduling, rather than transactional liner purchases.