EACON Mining signs overseas cooperation deal with mining equipment major XCMG
At a special event in Perth last week to celebrate its Hong Kong listing and key milestones in Australia, autonomous haulage technology major EACON Mining Technology also signed an MOU with XCMG aimed at further deepening their cooperation in overseas markets, and the Australian market in particular.
EACON is already very active in the Australian market with a fleet of six Komatsu HD1500 rigid trucks already automated and now running around the clock at Norton Gold Fields’ Havana Pit. XCMG for its part is also growing fast in Australia. It delivered its first fleet of large rigid mining trucks – 12 XDE260 units – arriving in WA earlier this year.
XCMG also has a major contract in place with Fortescue to supply battery electric trucks, dozers, graders and water trucks to its iron ore operations in Australia; plus has a global strategic framework agreement with BHP – a delegation from XCMG led by VP Hanson Liu just visited the BHP Perth office and IROC. XCMG also has a global cooperation agreement in place with Rio Tinto.
Yue Wang, Managing Director – XCMG Australia Technical Centre stated at the event: “This marks the beginning of deeper collaboration between our two companies in smart mining and autonomous driving solutions in Australia. Australia is one of the world’s most mature mining markets and has some of the most stringent standards. It places extremely high requirements on equipment safety, technical reliability, regulatory compliance and local service capabilities. It is also an important market for testing the performance of mining equipment and autonomous driving technologies.”
Elaine Jin, CGO at EACON Australia spoke about the relationship between mining tech companies and truck OEMs: “Being an OEM-agnostic autonomy provider doesn’t mean we keep OEMs at arm’s length. Quite the opposite – the speed at which we’ve grown in China, deploying thousands of vehicles every year, has been made possible because of our close collaboration with OEMs. This partnership allows us to install our autonomy parts in OEM factories, which greatly simplifies and accelerates our deployment process. It also gives us the opportunity to complete new vehicle model adaptations together with OEMs before a project even begins.”
She also pointed out that EACON’s relationship with XCMG did not start today. Over 260 XCMG trucks are already operating – mainly in China – with EACON’s autonomous driving system, ORCASTRA. Jin: “We share a similar view of where mining is heading: equipment is becoming more intelligent, more autonomous and increasingly electrified – and these technologies create the greatest value to the industry when they are designed and deployed together…this MOU reflects our shared intent to deepen that cooperation and take it into international markets.”
XCMG of course for its part brings a broad mining equipment portfolio, strong manufacturing and electrification capability, and a growing global footprint. EACON brings the latest autonomy technology, proven at scale, together with deployment experience in Australia. Jin: “By combining those strengths from both parties, we see an opportunity to give mining customers a faster path to autonomy by deeper native integration. XCMG’s investment in EACON through our recent IPO is also a strong sign of the trust between our two companies, and we greatly value that confidence…we are proud of what both companies have achieved individually, and even more excited about what we can achieve together.
XCMG Australia’s Wang added: “XCMG has been deeply involved in the mining equipment industry for many years and has established comprehensive capabilities in research and development, manufacturing, project delivery and local service. EACON has extensive technical expertise and project experience in autonomous mining, fleet dispatch and intelligent operations management. Through this cooperation, we will combine XCMG’s strengths in vehicle platforms, mining equipment and local operations in Australia with EACON’s capabilities in autonomous driving systems and intelligent fleet management. Together, we aim to develop integrated autonomous mining solutions that are safe, reliable and efficient.”
He also described the MOU as a new starting point for the partnership between the two companies. “XCMG looks forward to working closely with EACON to advance project implementation and establish a benchmark for the international cooperation of Chinese mining equipment and autonomous driving technologies.”
The post EACON Mining signs overseas cooperation deal with mining equipment major XCMG appeared first on International Mining.