Partnership to scale autonomous mining in Chile

Autonomy company Pronto is partnering with construction equipment sales and rental company Raico S.A., to expand the use of autonomous technology in Chile’s construction and mining sector. The partnership will initially be focused on deploying Pronto’s OEM-agnostic Autonomous Haulage System (AHS) on Bell articulated dump trucks, but will then expand to supporting other OEMs and applications.

The company’s AHS operates fully autonomously (Photo: Pronto)

Under the agreement, Raico will provide sales, distribution, installation, and aftermarket support services for Pronto AHS and Pollen Mobile private LTE / 5G network technologies in Chile.

“It’s not a coincidence that our first international partnership is in Chile, a critical supplier of minerals such as lithium, which like autonomous technology will be essential to the world’s transition to a carbon-neutral economy,” said Anthony Levandowski, CEO of Pronto.

“The greenest mining is autonomous mining. We’re looking forward to bringing the environmental, cost, productivity, and safety benefits of our Autonomous Haulage System to mining, quarrying, and forestry operations of all sizes in Chile.”

Pronto says that its AI-powered, software-centric solution is engineered to be deployed in “a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of competitive technologies”.

The company’s AHS operates fully autonomously, which is said to enable users to overcome labour shortages, maximise equipment utilisation, optimise efficiency, and has the potential to minimise environmental impacts.

“Autonomy is going to be necessary to support the world’s growing demand for critical resources such as lithium and cellulose, and it is the future for most operations in Chile. It is safe, reliable, environmentally friendly, and will help advance the productivity and technical capabilities of critical Chilean industries,” says Cristóbal Alexandroff, Commercial Manager at Raico.