Australian gold miner Vault Minerals has added xBot autonomous drone aerial surveying services to an existing contract with ASX-listed RocketDNA.
Vault, formerly Red 5, is spending about A$705,000 over 18 months on RocketDNA’s AI-powered robot drone, following on from an earlier three-year drone services contract with the technology minnow at its King of the Hills gold operation near Leonora in Western Australia.
RocketDNA said the previous contract was successfully finished but didn’t provide details.
“The new agreement consolidates RocketDNA’s existing provision of conventional drone services and expands the scope to include the company’s latest remote autonomous drone capabilities and automated data processing workflows,” it said.
“These will be deployed alongside RocketDNA’s proprietary SiteTube platform with operational support delivered both on-site and remotely from the company’s hubs in Perth and Adelaide.”
RocketDNA’s share price was unresponsive today but is up 9% over the past week, capitalising the company at about $13 million.
CEO Christopher Clark said the Vault contract was a “milestone in integrating remote autonomous operations into daily mining workflows”.
“We’re proud to deliver both boots-on-the-ground and remote capabilities that improve safety, consistency and site-wide data intelligence,” he said.
Vault has gold mines in WA producing more than 400,000oz a year and an advanced gold project in Ontario, Canada. It has a current market value around $2.6 billion.
