They have always said it was their way into mining business but I guess times have moved on and even the archaic mining industry is aware that software exists.

2x revenue seems okay to me, it's a very cyclical business and its been a good year. Also they're paying for a lot of the transition too.

Seems fine to me as well, as it is essentially a non-core element to what the business wants to be.

Mining Industry 'Archaic' ? No its not......

@Wakem @Mujo I second that. Anyone who wants to see high tech in the digital world should go into either the $BHP or $RIO Integrated Operations Centres in the Perth or Brisbane CBDs, where you literally see mine-face-to-port-operations being controlled by a handfull of "operators" sitting at an array of screens like a SpaceX Control Centre.

On a recent tour I asked a young operator (20-something, trade qualified mechanic) how many trucks she was controlling. Answer was, 23, but I can do 24 at one time. No drivers, Hundreds of kilometres away. And these are massive trucks, all moving around on the screen like a Pacman games, with slighter better graphics, and a lot of real time information.

$RUL is starting to rack up some impressive logos for which it is passing the procurement qualification phase, also some of the new products are passing "pilot" phases into commercialisation.

The drive by the big miners to drive down costs and optimise by technology adoption and digitalisation has to be seen to be believed. $RUL's tools are there at the right time and the right place.

I'll write up some notes on today's result when I get to it. But today I have increased my $RUL holdings in RL and SM.

BHP and RIO are the global leaders, and sure their 80+ year mine life mines in the pilbara are advanced but I imagine the 2000 junior explorers just on the ASX and junior miners operating in Africa aren't at that level, and that's just ASX listed ones - probably one of the most advanced mining countries.

BHP/RIO/Glencore/Freemont/Newmont would be big customers but still as a whole I think the industry would be a lot further behind. They just can't afford driverless trucks etc especially for small deposits or small single mines.

If you go back a few years and read the RUL transcripts and annual reports you'll get some insights. On premise software in old code with almost no software engineers, excel spreadsheets etc.

The adoption is probably accelerating now but they've been very slow seeing as we are in 2025. This is what RUL was trying to fix and they needed an advisory business even to get their foot in the door...

@Mujo yes, that's true, and I have been following $RUL for many years and also recall those discussions.

I guess that just strengthens the case for investing in $RUL. A lot of the technology investment and innovation will be funded by the majors, and then diffuse through the industry over time as the incremental costs fall. It's been the same in many other industries. Which is why I think this is the right time to invest in $RUL.

However, it is also the reason why I think $RUL is an acquisition candidate, and today's announcement has just brought forward the inevitable.