Seattle based first mode said it would work with the global mining company Anglo American to reach a multi-year joint development agreement, including an investment of $8.5 million in first mode.
The newly announced deal builds on the engineering company’s previous construction of a hydrogen fuel cell power plant for Anglo American’s giant ore transport truck.
Anglo American is one of the largest mining companies in the world. Its portfolio includes platinum group metals, copper and iron ore and diamond mines. Its business scope extends from South Africa to Western Australia.
Mining is not entirely an environmental industry, but Anglo American is implementing a plan called “future intelligent mining” to reduce its environmental footprint. The hydrogen powered vehicle being developed by first mode may become one of the largest zero emission vehicles on the earth.
The first model was founded in 2018 by veterans of planetary resources, an asteroid mining enterprise, but ended in failure. Most of the work of first mode is related to supporting space projects, such as NASA’s perseverance Mars probe and psyche’s mission to detect metal rich asteroids. However, the cooperation with Anglo American shows that the first model is also serious to solve the geoengineering challenge.
First mode said that the newly announced transaction will highlight the decarbonization focus of the global mining business and develop clean technology solutions for the world’s largest industrial applications.
In the first mock exam, the company told GeekWire: “this investment supports expanding the first mode of growth capability and expanding the scale of many industries to meet customers’ demand for clean energy and invest in their most important products – their employees.”
By the end of last year, first mode had 75 employees, three of whom were located in Perth, a city in Western Australia. Perth is a hot spot in mining operations. Since then, these figures have increased significantly: LinkedIn’s list shows that first mode now has more than 100 employees, including 18 employees in Australia.
The first word of Anglo American’s investment is form d submitted to the securities and Exchange Commission. According to the document, first mode is conducting a round of financing of US $32.5 million and sold us $8.5 million of equity. First mode said that the remaining $24 million equity has been recognized, although it was not reflected in the document on October 1.