Drilling services provider Master Drilling has acquired a 40% interest in data-driven mining fleet management solutions specialist AVA Solutions.

Founded in 2015 by Anton Fourie and Jason van der Watt, two engineers with over 25 years of combined mining industry experience, AVA has created a captive market for its disruptive, hardware agnostic and quick to implement software-as-a-service (SaaS) model at much lower costs to other solutions.

Its unique digital platform analyses and tracks more than 1 800 load and haul vehicles across 28 different sites in five countries for a range of blue-chip companies.

“Technological innovation is a key priority for Master Drilling as we continue to support our clients to move down the cost curve, optimise their operations and increase safety.

"Our investment in AVA is aligned with our strategy to diversify our services and invest in opportunities in our existing target markets with low capital requirements and short return cycles. We believe that AVA has great growth potential and we look forward to supporting them through our existing client base and networks internationally,” says Master Drilling CEO Danie Pretorius.

Traditionally, digital fleet management solutions were only accessible to larger mines, as the costs and capital outlay associated with the solutions were too high.

AVA disrupted the category with a solution that is accessible for all mines and asset sizes by simplifying traditionally difficult systems to implement and maintain. Through this offering, the potential market for AVA is vast as many mines that currently struggle to get real value from their digital initiatives are now able to deploy a real end-to-end solution, Master Drilling notes in a media statement.

“We have grown exponentially from a start-up five years ago to a recognised player with a proven technology for the mining industry. We have a clear strategy to provide an end-to-end solution that goes beyond the load and haul environment and across the entire mining value chain.

"Through our partnership with Master Drilling, we are gaining access to extensive experience that will support the ongoing development of our platform and a footprint that will accelerate our international expansion,” says Fourie.