Broadband  |  2023-11-09

Pronto and RAICO Partner on Private LTE for Mining in Chile

Source: The Critical Communications Review | Gert Jan Wolf editor

Under the agreement, RAICO will exclusively provide sales, distribution, installation, and aftermarket support services for Pronto AHS and Pollen Mobile private LTE / 5G network technologies in Chile.

Pronto, the Silicon Valley-based company producing the Autonomous Haulage System (AHS), has announced its partnership with RAICO S.A., a leading mining and forestry equipment sales and rental services provider in Chile, to scale mining and forestry autonomy in the country.

Under the agreement, RAICO will exclusively provide sales, distribution, installation, and aftermarket support services for Pronto AHS and Pollen Mobile private LTE / 5G network technologies in Chile. The partnership will initially be focused on deploying Pronto’s OEM-agnostic AHS on Bell articulated dump trucks, but will then expand to supporting other OEMs and applications.

“It’s not a coincidence that our first international partnership is in Chile, a critical supplier of minerals such as lithium, which, like autonomous technology, will be essential to the world’s transition to a carbon-neutral economy,” said Anthony Levandowski, CEO of Pronto. “The greenest mining is autonomous mining. We’re looking forward to bringing the environmental, cost, productivity, and safety benefits of our Autonomous Haulage System to mining, quarrying, and forestry operations of all sizes in Chile.”

Pronto’s AI-powered, software-centric solution is engineered to be deployed in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of competitive technologies, bringing autonomy within reach for operations and equipment of all sizes. The company’s AHS operates fully autonomously, enabling customers to overcome labour shortages, maximise equipment utilisation, optimise efficiency, and minimise environmental impacts, while improving safety.

“Autonomy is going to be necessary to support the world’s growing demand for critical resources such as lithium and cellulose, and it is the future for most operations in Chile. It is safe, reliable, environmentally friendly, and will help advance the productivity and technical capabilities of critical Chilean industries,” says Cristóbal Alexandroff, Commercial Manager of RAICO. “We're excited to be helping usher in the future of sustainable energy, forestry, and mining with a global technology leader like Pronto.”