UK-based MMD Group says it will work with Hong Kong-listed CiDi to speed deployment of its recently acquired TraxIQ mining autonomy technology globally under a new partnership with the Chinese company.
MMD’s back-to-back announcements of the CiDi alliance and its purchase of mining major Anglo American’s TraxIQ IP provided a “clear signal of the pace at which we are moving” in the mining mobile autonomy space, the company’s mobile equipment program director Luke Smith said this week.
Smith was technology development principal with Anglo American in London for more than five years before joining MMD at the start of this year. He spent nearly 25 years at Anglo and De Beers and led development of the TraxIQ IP from its launch in 2023. “We’re reimagining mining with modular components, lighter materials and smart technologies. The result will be a green, low-energy solution that protects the environment and your bottom line,” Smith said at the TraxIQ launch.
MMD is a 48-year-old Isle of Man manufacturer of stationary and mobile rock crushing equipment that opened its first office in China in the 1990s. The company inaugurated a mining technology Centre of Excellence at its Isle of Man base last year. “It represents a fundamental shift in how we think about material movement, moving beyond traditional, equipment-led systems toward an integrated, fully autonomous and energy-efficient architecture,” Smith said of the centre’s focus.
MMD said its agreement with CiDi, which listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange at the end of 2025 after a US$167 million IPO, would help it accelerate global commercialisation and deployment of TraxIQ.
“CiDi will provide the autonomous driving hardware and software, including the sensing and compute systems that form part of the TraxIQ platform,” it said.
“The agreement includes the provision of retrofit kits designed to make compatible mining equipment autonomous.
“The partnership marks a shift toward an integrated, system-level approach to material movement, allowing mining operations to move beyond the constraints of traditional equipment-led models. The TraxIQ system brings together modular equipment, advanced energy strategies and autonomous control systems to create a more flexible, scalable and efficient approach to mining operations.”
CiDi co-founder Dr Ma Wei said the MMD agreement created a framework for “long-term collaboration as the TraxIQ platform progresses toward deployment and commercialisation across global mining markets”.
The company said this week it had deployed more than 1500 autonomous mining trucks in mainland China, “building extensive experience in large-scale operations under complex conditions”.
