National Group says it recently acquired Wolff Group, bolting on a range of automated and innovative solutions such as large scale satellite bulk dozer push and semi-autonomous blast hole drilling to its existing range of mining services.
Wolff, the first company in Australia to use Command for dozing, a Cat® Minestar™ offering, also provides contract mining services, excavator pre-strip fleets, civil earthworks, site clearing and rehabilitation works, according to National Group.
The National Group, meanwhile, comprises companies from the mining, resource, logistics and personnel supply industries that, through its National Heavy Haulage and International Global Logistics subsidiaries, regularly delivers mining equipment nationally and internationally.
National Group Managing Director, Mark Ackroyd, sees the acquisition providing niche business opportunities.
“Adding Wolff to the National Group will allow us to deliver additional services in autonomous operations, so it was a logical choice for us,” he said.
“Terry (Wolff, Managing Director of Wolff Group) and his team at Wolff have a very similar organisational culture to ours and that was one of the most important things we spoke about during our discussions. The other was their work in autonomous operations and the focus towards the future of mining.
“We want to provide our customers with the best there is and staying on the cutting-edge of technology goes a long way in allowing us to do that.”
As part of the acquisition, National Group and Wolff have agreed to adopt a “business as usual” approach to ensure minimal to no effect on the current Wolff workforce and customer base, National Group said.
Terry Wolff, who will stay actively involved in the business, said: “National Group met all of our foundations and culturally aligned with the way we already do business here at Wolff, so that made this decision a lot easier for us. We couldn’t think of a better company to pass on the baton to.
“National Group values our people, autonomous expertise and our ability to operate in the segments where we have a depth of knowledge and experience.”
Wolff is well-known in the industry for its focus on innovation and technology and already has an established partnership with Caterpillar and Hastings Deering to implement and optimise semi-autonomous tractor system technology in a world’s-first application into a mining production environment, National Group said.
Ackroyd concluded: “Here at the National Group, we are excited for the future and look forward to further extending the range of automated features for our expansive fleet of dozers and drills.”
