Thiess looks to diversify with stakes in LAAMP, Mechatronix

Mining services group Thiess has acquired major stakes in Adelaide’s training platform LAAMP and Sunshine Coast-based composite materials outfit Mechatronix as part of a strategy to expand its global offering outside of its traditional mining operations.

The move cements long-standing working relationships that Thiess has forged with each of these private companies over several years.

LAAMP is a digital platform that delivers streamlined training and assessments to remote workforces, while Mechatronix is pioneering carbon-fibre structural reinforcements to dramatically extend the life of trucks and, ultimately, boost payload capacity.

“The investments in LAAMP and Mechatronix will provide wider benefits for our valued clients and people, while helping us reach our goals in sustainability and innovation,” says Thiess Group CEO Michael Wright.

“LAAMP aims to ensure our people have the right competency and capability, with the latest thinking in training and assessments, while Mechatronix has a global focus on fleet sustainability and asset longevity.”

Wright notes that the Queensland-founded Thiess this year marks 90 years in business and now operates in seven countries employing more than 15,000 people.

“While we are incredibly proud of this legacy, we are looking at new avenues to further pioneer sustainable mining and infrastructure services into the future,” he says.

Thiess has worked with Mechatronix, a family-owned business founded by Andrew Middlin, since 2020.

The mining services giant says it approached Mechatronix with an ambitious target of doubling the expected operating life of its existing mining trucks, from about 60,000 to 70,000 hours, which typically accounts for about 10 years onsite, to about 110,000 to 120,000 hours.

Middlin, an engineer by trade, had spent 30 years in the mining industry analysing machines for stress and fatigue, before discovering an industry-first solution to extend the life of these assets.

In 2014, Middlin struck the idea of using of carbon fibre, a material stronger than steel yet significantly lighter, to reinforce truck chassis and structural components, which are generally not economically repairable after major and repetitive fatigue cracking.

Mechatronix also has capabilities of “lightweighting” vehicles by replacing heavy steel structures with hybrid metal-carbon fibre alternatives.

Thiess says this capability provides immediate payload benefits on current assets and will assist the mining sector with the transition to electric or hydrogen-powered machines.

Sustainable solution

“If we can take 10 tonnes of weight out of an asset – that’s an extra 10 tonnes a truck on a mine site can carry on each load,” says Middlin.

“Overall, that increases productivity, while providing a smarter and more sustainable solution for existing assets.

“It’s a genuine win-win situation where we have a high-profile partner to help us showcase to the industry what we can do, while for Thiess, our technology allows them to be a differentiator in their sector and make strong inroads into their sustainability commitments.”

Thiess plans to install kits designed and built by Mechatronix to its own assets and to those of its clients at the group’s new Rebuild Centre on Batam Island in Indonesia.

“We have one of the largest fleets globally in the mining sector, with about 1,200 off-highway mining trucks, so it makes sense for us to invest in this capability,” says Wright.

“Our industry is always looking to extend the life of existing assets and transition to electric vehicles. This is a natural partnership.”

Meanwhile, the Thiess investment in LAAMP stems from a relationship forged in 2019, when Thiess was looking at improving its training, assessment and staff records across a disparate global workforce.

“At that time, we had staff spread across Africa, the Americas, Indonesia, Mongolia, India and Australia and the content was being delivered in different ways, without the consistency we would have liked,” says Wright.

“We wanted to change not only how the content was delivered – to make it interactive, multilingual and relevant – but also how and where it was delivered.”

LAAMP founder and managing director Tim Angel, who started his career in the mining industry in the early 2000s, had seen an unmet need for organisations to centralise and digitise induction, training and assessment.

LAAMP not only delivers content to remote worksites, but it also maintains a digital record of training and assessment to maintain a vetted and verified “skills passport” for each person.

The company says that this allows staff to move more easily between sites and organisations by providing a point-in-time oversight of their workforce skills-base.

In the five years since he established LAAMP, Angel said the company has conducted more than 12 million training events, with the platform being used in the mining, construction, hospitality and healthcare sectors across Australia, North America, South America, Asia and Africa.

“There are benefits for employees, too, as the LAAMP platform allows workers to access and share their own `skills passport’, rather than keeping track of paper certificates and qualifications,” says Angel.

“The support from our team to make this a global success has been tremendous.”

While financial details of the investments by Thiess in Mechatronix and LAAMP have not been disclosed, Angel describes the Thiess backing for his company as “empowering and profound”.