Critical minerals and gold dominated mining in 2025 as China’s export controls on antimony and rare earths triggered smuggling crackdowns, a 7,500-tonne US cobalt tender was cancelled and reissued, and MP Materials halted rare earth exports from Mountain Pass to China. The Trump administration pursued supply-chain security via a proposed critical minerals tariff probe, a US–Ukraine rare earths deal, and a December US–Congo partnership covering cobalt. Record gold prices above $4,500/oz, a Goldman poll pointing to $5,000/oz by end-2026, and De Beers’ first new kimberlite field in 30 years rounded out a volatile year.

Sofi Filtration has opened a new Sofi Filtration Test Center in Izmir, Türkiye, to run commercial testing and piloting of its filtration technology with local mining customers. The facility, established with local partner Ecoline Group, is aimed at on-site evaluation of mine water and process streams under Turkish operating conditions. For engineers, this signals easier access to pilot-scale trials and performance data without shipping samples abroad, potentially shortening design cycles for dewatering and water-reuse projects in the region.

Metso will supply several Nordberg MP800 high-capacity cone crushers to Grupo Mexico’s La Caridad copper mine concentrator in Nacozari, Sonora, as part of a plant capacity upgrade. The MP800 units, typically used for secondary and tertiary crushing in large copper concentrators, will be integrated into existing circuits to handle higher throughputs without major footprint changes. For plant and process engineers, the move signals continued reliance on large, fixed crushing assets rather than smaller, modular units for brownfield debottlenecking.