Stockholm-listed Sandvik has kicked off what could be a busy year in the mining tech M&A arena with a deal to buy South Africa’s circa-US$20 million-a-year mining training simulator manufacturer, ThoroughTec Simulation.
Sandvik CEO Stefan Widing told analysts on a recent results call he expected the company to get busier on the M&A front in 2026, though it did wrap up 11 acquisitions last year.
ThoroughTec, to be added to Sandvik’s $6.9 billion-a-year mining business, will be its first mining tech transaction in more than 12 months once it clears regulatory hurdles. The deal is expected to close next quarter.
Sandvik won’t publicly disclose the acquisition price, for now, but says ThoroughTec will be EBITA-margin accretive. Sandvik reported a 2025 full-year EBITA margin of 19.3% and bumped that up to 19.6% in the fourth quarter of the year.
Recent major acquisitions in the mining and metals technology space, such as Weir’s $800 million purchase of Micromine, Caterpillar’s $735 million buyout of RPMGlobal and IMDEX’s Advanced Logic Technology acquisition, have seen buyers pay 10-to-13-times revenue to get deals done.
Komatsu reportedly paid $150 million for the global leader in mine simulator tech, Immersive Technologies, back in 2019.
ThoroughTec, which started life in 1997 as a military simulator training technology company called Kobitech, renewed a “global cooperation agreement” with Caterpillar in 2024. At the time it said its portfolio had more than 40 “unique” Caterpillar equipment simulators, “ranging from underground LHDs to the largest and latest surface haul trucks and shovels and respective Cat MineStar offerings”.
Launching its latest Cybermine mining simulators in December last year, ThoroughTec said: “In an era where equipment is as much about software as it is the metal the provision of realistic training on these systems is essential. Operators must understand how to interpret and respond to digital alerts, manage machine automation and navigate multiple on-board systems simultaneously while maintaining situational awareness and productivity. CYBERMINE 6 provides the perfect environment to develop these competencies safely and efficiently.”
Sandvik said the combination of ThoroughTec’s training simulators and Sandvik’s digital solutions would enable “data-driven, customised operator training programs based on real machine performance insights”.
Widing described ThoroughTec as a “great addition to Sandvik”.
“Their solutions will strengthen our aftermarket offering and help customers enhance both productivity and safety in their operations through advanced training technologies,” he said.
