Universal Field Robots is the latest Australian mining technology company targeted by an international acquirer, with Sweden’s Sandvik the suitor.
UFR is small, with latest annual sales of circa-US$8 million, but it has been growing on the back of mining and defence-related mobile-equipment automation projects.
These include its alliance with Gold Fields in Western Australia. The miner has developed underground mine digitalisation and fleet automation templates it expects to export to its wider global operations portfolio.
UFR has also worked with companies such as ASX-listed Imdex on bespoke mining auto-vehicle platforms.
Sandvik has been an aggressive acquirer of mining product and technology businesses in the past few years, with its 2022 purchase of Australian mining software firm Deswik topping a long list of deals. CEO Stefan Widing has claimed the company is the global market leader in underground hard-rock mine fleet automation sales, which it hasn’t disclosed.
It also hasn’t disclosed the acquisition price for UFR, saying the deal expected to close in Q4 this year would positively impact its earnings per share.
“Universal Field Robots is an important strategic addition to Sandvik Mining and Rock Solutions, which will strengthen our growth potential and provide key capabilities in the development of our mining automation solutions portfolio going forward,” Widing said this week.
The acquisition would expand Sandvik’s addressable market and enhance the position of its flagship AutoMine mining automation platform, he said.
“Adding to the AutoMine platform’s existing capabilities to integrate third party equipment, UFR will significantly expand the number of compatible third-party equipment types, providing customers with flexible opportunities to optimise the performance of their full mining equipment fleets, regardless of the OEM,” Sandvik said.
“UFR’s solution portfolio is built on a common autonomy platform, which is a strong complement to Sandvik’s automation offering and includes original equipment manufacturer-agnostic robotic and autonomous solutions for trucks, loaders and auxiliary equipment.”
Founded in 2015 by mechanical engineer Jeff Sterling, Brisbane-based UFR has about 40 employees.
Sterling told InvestMETS.com in an interview earlier this year the fragmented Australian and international mining technology field had difficulty attracting private funding, which constrained fast scale-ups.
“We’ve been lucky enough to have customers funding some of the stuff we’ve been working on. And we’ve been able to get some [government] grants,” he said.
“But there’s not enough funding out there. I don’t think there’s a lot of funding in this deep-tech hardware space.
“So it’s not an easy road.”
