EACON Mining Technology has secured over $US55 million ($86 million) in its Series D financing to accelerate its global expansion, with a focus on strengthening its presence in the Australian market.
Through its investment arm CATL Capital, the round was led by CATL, the world’s largest manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries and a major supplier to Tesla, Volkswagen, BMW and Toyota.
Additional participants include Shaanxi Tonly Heavy Industries, the world’s largest manufacturer of wide-body mining dump trucks, and CHC Navigation (CHCNAV), a global provider of mapping, navigation and positioning solutions.
They are joined by FG Venture, a venture capital firm focused on high-growth technology companies, Xingqi Fund under Falcon Capital, and Zhongji Holding, an investment group focused on strategic investments and industrial integration in advanced manufacturing and information technology.
Since its founding in 2018, EACON’s OEM (original equipment manufacturer) agnostic smart mining haulage technology has provided factory built and retrofit solutions, offering fleet flexibility in both greenfield and brownfield operations.
To date, the company has deployed nearly 1500 autonomous trucks across more than 20 operational sites, including five sites with over 100 trucks each and three with more than 200, and was the first provider in China to achieve scaled commercialisation across coal, metals and aggregates.
Headquartered in Shanghang, China, EACON also operates R&D (research and development) centres in Beijing, Shanghai and Zhengzhou, alongside localised service networks across China and Australia.
The company delivers end-to-end support, from research and development and system integration to deployment, training and maintenance.
Backed by this consortium of industrial and technology partners, EACON will dedicate a significant share of the proceeds to local research and development of its autonomous haulage platform, pilot deployments with partners such as Thiess and Norton Goldfields and the establishment of sales, support and engineering operations in Australia.
“This funding round reflects strong confidence in EACON’s ability to commercialise its technology,” EACON co-founder and chairman Zhang Lei said.
“Our focus will be on three key areas: enhancing our hardware and software to develop next-generation systems that perform reliably in harsh conditions and boost productivity; expanding factory-fit autonomous solutions to more truck models, especially in metal mining and international markets; and accelerating overseas deployments by closely integrating our technology with local mining operations.”
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