RCF Innovation II Investment Update: Pitcrew AI

Andrew Jessett [00:00:21] I’m Andrew Jessett, VP of Australasia for the RCF Jolimont Innovation Fund. The RCF Jolimont, team is a group of ex mining entrepreneurs and innovators who’ve come together to find the next wave of innovation, which is going to transform the mining industry.

[00:00:40] Our goal is to look for those technologies that are going to make mining safer, cleaner, and more efficient. RCF Jolimont is part of Resource Capital Funds. Resource capital funds or RCF is a private equity investor in the mining industry. They’ve been doing it for over 25 years. They’ve completed over 220 investments covering 50 different countries. So, our most recent investment is Pitcrew AI, a company based in Newcastle, Australia. This investment was an equity investment. Uh, and we’re now invested alongside the founder and co-founders and looking forward to the exciting future of this business. Pitcrew provides technology which sits on mining sites and allows mines to better manage their tire life. Tires are a major cost center for all mining operations. They weigh over four tonnes and they cost tens of thousands of dollars each. So, getting the absolute maximum value out of every single tire is very, very important to the economics of any mine. The pit crew technology helps mining operations by allowing them to better monitor in real time the condition of their tires so they can better plan their strategies around maintenance, extend their tire life, and also avoid catastrophic tire failure.

Andrew Jessett [00:01:59] There are two major themes which make mining innovation a very exciting place to focus. First, with the majority of easy mineral deposits having already been mined. Innovation will be pivotal to being able to continue to economically source the critical minerals which will power the energy transition and help reduce global emissions. Secondly, mining companies across the globe acutely understand the absolute imperative of improving their ESG performance across a wide range of measures. In particular mining’s environmental performance. It needs new and better ways of doing things to achieve, uh, goals and targets, while in parallel to that, also increase overall output of metals and minerals to meet growing demand.

Andrew Jessett [00:02:40] Our fund’s core objective is to find innovative businesses providing solutions and solving problems within these themes. We first came across Pitcrew through our global network. One of the benefits we have within RCF Jolimont is we have people in strategic places that are critically important to the hubs of mining innovation across the world. Through that network, we’re able to identify companies like pit Crew, who are doing incredible things in different parts of the mining operations. In addition to that, with the backing of Resource Capital Funds we can give them access to hundreds of mine sites and many, many operations who can benefit from their technology. That’ll provide the introductions, which can really accelerate their penetration into market.

Andrew Jessett [00:03:25] The thesis from our column on why we really, really loved this particular company and what drove us to invest, is it ticks three critical boxes for us that we’d love to see in any, any investment we do. The first of those is safety. The technology increases the safety of operations of mines by reducing the risk of catastrophic failure. Secondly, it addresses emissions. Tires, consumes a significant amount of carbon in their manufacture. And so, by reducing the consumption of tires, we are directly impacted the amount of carbon that’s being produced. Thirdly, there’s an economic benefit by extending the life of every single tire. Being such a high-cost item for a mine site. There’s a major flow on economic benefit to the end user of the Pitcrew technology. Combination of these things make crew an ideal investment for us at RCF Jolimont.

Andrew Jessett [00:04:15] So now that RCF Jolimont has completed its investment in Pitcrew. What are the next few years hold? Well, there’s a lot of work that we’ve got to do. There’s a massive amount of demand for the Pitcrew product and that demand needs to be satisfied. We’re going to be getting in the trenches with the team. We’re going to start building out the channels to market to all parts of the world where mining happens. And we’re going to make sure that we’re delivering a fantastic product and service to those customers. So, the Pitcrew AI is an established brand within the market and within the tire management space.