Metso books approximately €40 million Viscaria copper-mine process-equipment order

A confirmed process-equipment award

Metso Corporation announced on September 8 that it had signed an agreement with Gruvaktiebolaget Viscaria for key process equipment at the Viscaria copper mine in Kiruna, northern Sweden. Metso put the value of its order at approximately €40 million and said it was recorded in the Minerals segment’s third-quarter 2026 order intake.

Viscaria separately confirmed the agreement the same day, describing it as a long-term cooperation arrangement with Metso Sweden AB for the processing plant. The mine developer characterized the processing plant as the project’s largest single investment and said the contract supports the project’s advance into its planned execution phase.

Equipment reaches across the concentrator flowsheet

The award is broader than a standalone crusher or mill package. Metso said its delivery will include a FIT crushing station using a Nordberg C Series jaw crusher and Nordberg HP Series cone crusher, together with a flotation circuit using TankCell and Concorde Cell technology. The stated scope also includes magnetic separators and a filtration plant with Larox PF and VPA filters.

Additional equipment and services named by Metso are a thickener system, slurry pumps, MHC hydrocyclone clusters, analyzers and process-engineering services. In practice, this places a substantial portion of the concentrator’s core mechanical and process technology under one supplier relationship, although the announcements do not specify construction, electrical or control-system subcontract awards.

The contract follows the mill purchase

The September agreement supplements Viscaria’s earlier Metso purchase for two long-lead mills: a SAG mill and a ball mill. Viscaria announced that first equipment agreement on January 14, 2026, saying the purchase was intended to secure items with lengthy delivery periods and maintain the project schedule.

Combining the mills with the newly announced crushing, separation, flotation, filtration and slurry-handling scope gives the project a more defined process-plant equipment baseline. Metso stated that the new agreement covers copper and iron-ore processing solutions across the flowsheet. Viscaria has said it is reopening the mine and targets annual output of 120,000 tonnes of copper concentrate; that production figure is a company target rather than a completed-production result.

Why the order matters for industrial project teams

For procurement groups, installers and systems integrators, the announcement is a tangible sign that the Viscaria concentrator is progressing beyond conceptual equipment selection. Large process packages commonly require coordinated interfaces for medium- and low-voltage power distribution, motor control, equipment instrumentation, plant control systems, communications infrastructure, cable support and field installation work.

However, the Metso and Viscaria disclosures do not assign those scopes or name vendors for them. It would therefore be premature to treat the order as confirmation of any specific automation platform, electrical contractor, industrial-network supplier or field-device brand. The practical opportunity signal is that detailed engineering and package-interface definition can now proceed alongside equipment procurement.

What to monitor next

The next useful milestones will be disclosures covering detailed engineering, construction packages, permanent power infrastructure, controls integration, commissioning plans and delivery timing for the concentrator equipment. Viscaria’s June financing communication said that detailed design contracts had been awarded for the processing-plant building and that permanent power infrastructure was progressing with Vattenfall Eldistribution, but it did not identify a complete electrical or automation supply chain.

For suppliers supporting heavy industrial work, the key distinction is between the confirmed process-equipment contract and future downstream procurement. The confirmed award establishes Metso’s major role in the process plant; it does not, on its own, establish orders for electrical distribution, automation hardware, networking, safety systems or installation consumables.