MaxMine has announced that specialist-industrial investor, Viburnum Funds, has made a significant investment in the business to accelerate the market penetration of its namesake flagship product. Viburnum will acquire 25% of the business, for an undisclosed sum. It says this marks “a crucial step in the continued evolution of MaxMine,” also known by the holding entity Resolution Systems.
MaxMine was founded in 2015 with five employees, and it has since expanded to a team of over 40 in Adelaide, Sydney, Perth and South Africa, with rapid growth continuing. MaxMine is a proprietary technology platform that drives improvements in the productivity of mobile plant and equipment operating in open-pit mines. “MaxMine’s automated mining operational improvement and reporting capabilities utilises mining specific data analytics to empower mine operations leaders and workers to be more effective and productive. MaxMine’s seamless automation and extensive artificial intelligence capabilities give it the ability to automatically gather over a thousand times more data than existing fleet management systems. It delivers productivity outputs measured in reduced costs and carbon, rather than just technology or data.”
MaxMine is currently deployed at open-pit gold, copper and coal mines across Australia and Africa. The company’s customer base is diverse, and ranges from large multinational and domestic mid-sized mining companies, as well as contract miners. “For example, on a well-run open cut hard rock gold mine, MaxMine delivered a sustained 13% lift in haul efficiency and 7% payload increase, for a total of 20% productivity improvement. MaxMine enabled an owner-operator site to improve payload by 5%, increase haul efficiency by 10%, and in the process also reducing the site’s queue time by up to 50%.”
On another hard rock mine, MaxMine says it enabled the site to reduce the total non-productive haul truck travel from above 20% to below 10%, which also measurably reduces the operational carbon impact.
MaxMine Chief Executive Officer Tom Cawley said Viburnum’s significant investment in the company illustrates the long-term growth fundamentals of the business, underpinned by MaxMine’s ability to routinely turn technology into tonnes for clients, as well as recognising the extensive data asset’s future potential. “MaxMine is currently deployed at open-pit mining operations globally, with future application targeted for underground operations, as the Company progresses its growth strategy, which has seen revenue growth between 70% and a 100% annually over the first five years,” Cawley said. “Viburnum and MaxMine have a shared goal of partnering for the long-term to accelerate digital adoption in mining. It is also a welcome endorsement to receive continued support from our existing investors.”
Viburnum’s Managing Partner Marshall Allen said MaxMine has a very positive outlook given the increasing pressure on miners to optimise productivity and operations. “There has been a fundamental shift in the mining industry’s interest in data and its ability to deliver insight and MaxMine is at the forefront of that shift and puts the tools right into the hands of the operators and decision makers,” Mr Allen said.
“MaxMine’s demonstrated track record of successfully delivering for clients and pioneering a new category of technology product made it a very attractive investment proposition.” Allen will join the Board of MaxMine as part of the transaction, in line with the long-term partnership vision of both companies. Atrico advised MaxMine on the deal.
