Our Team Has Entered the TOP 10 of the Prestigious International Reynolds Cup 2026 Competition!

We are pleased to announce that our team has secured 7th place in the 13th biennial Reynolds Cup competition for quantitative mineralogical analysis, joining the top ten analytical laboratories in the world!

This outstanding result is the culmination of many years of work and clearly demonstrates the significant progress and high professionalism of our team. For us, this is not just a victory, but a reflection of our long-term efforts. We have been actively participating in the competition since 2014 and have consistently improved our performance and now we have broken into the top ten, securing 7th position.

Seventh place in such a competition is not only recognition of our high professional level but also confirmation of the reliability and accuracy of our analytical methods. We are proud of this achievement and grateful to our entire team for their hard work!

The Reynolds Cup is a unique international competition organized by The Clay Minerals Society (CMS) since 2002. The competition is named in honor of Robert Reynolds for his pioneering work in quantitative clay mineralogy and is considered one of the most prestigious in the world in the field of quantitative phase analysis of mineral mixtures.

The essence of the competition is to determine the mineral composition of three samples as accurately as possible. These are artificially created mixtures of pure minerals with a known reference composition. This makes the competition not just a contest but an ideal model for verifying analytical methods and confirming the reliability of results. Participants may use any methods and their combinations; however, X-ray diffraction (XRD) remains the primary tool. The accuracy of the measurements is assessed by the minimum deviation (bias) from the reference values.

The competition traditionally attracts a large number of participants. For example, the 12th competition featured results from 99 teams from 30 countries. The current 13th competition also brought together representatives from leading laboratories worldwide, with more than 120 teams from over two dozen countries participating.

The 2026 competition was organized by the previous winners, CSIRO (Australia). Mark Raven and his colleagues developed the reference samples for participants, preparing three complex mixtures that simulate real geological objects:The reference samples for the participants were developed by Mark Raven and his colleagues, who prepared three complex mixtures simulating real geological objects: