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ROCKETDNA LTD (RKT) - From Security Concerns to Multi-Year Contracts: RocketDNA's Aerial Data Journey

• Andrew Musgrave

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The sky above Australia's mining sector is changing dramatically as autonomous drones revolutionise how critical data is gathered, processed, and utilised. In this revealing conversation with Chris Clark, Managing Director of RocketDNA, we uncover the remarkable journey from conventional drone services to AI-powered autonomous aerial solutions that are now embedded in the daily operations of Australia's biggest miners.

What began as a response to nighttime security threats at an African mine has evolved into a sophisticated remote operation system that's transforming mining workflows across continents. Chris shares how RocketDNA's technology allows operators in Perth and Adelaide to safely manage drone flights at sites thousands of kilometres away, creating an "everyday accessible utility" for both on-site teams and corporate decision-makers. The proof is in the contracts – with Vault Minerals and Goldfields recently signing long-term agreements that signal a fundamental shift in how the industry views this technology.

The conversation reveals fascinating insights into how RocketDNA's "land and expand" strategy works in practice, with customers typically starting with one or two specific applications before quickly discovering additional uses across multiple departments. With flight activity up 97% quarter-on-quarter and deployments expanding to BHP's Prominent Hill, Bowen Basin coal operations, and international sites in Africa and Papua New Guinea, the company has clearly moved beyond proof-of-concept to what Chris calls "proof of contract." For investors watching the intersection of AI, mining technology and drones, this represents a compelling case study in how innovation becomes indispensable through demonstrable ROI. Want to understand how aerial data is becoming the next essential mining tool? Listen now to hear directly from the company at the forefront of this transformation.

Andrew Musgrave Host

Welcome back to ASX Briefs, where we spotlight the leaders reshaping Australia's innovation economy. And today we're joined again by Chris Clark, the Managing Director of RocketDNA, a drone technology company pioneering autonomous AI-powered aerial data solutions for tier one miners, government and infrastructure clients. Chris, thanks for joining me again and welcome back to the ASX Briefs podcast. 

Chris Clark Guest

Thank you, Andrew. Thanks for having me. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

Now, Chris, could you start by telling us about RocketDNA's origins and the journey that brought the business to where it is today? 

Chris Clark Guest

Yeah, thanks, Andrew. Yeah, I guess, like many drone companies, we started with conventional drone services in mining but very quickly saw the need for automation. It actually was triggered off originally by one of our African mining customers who were having problems actually with security, where they had people who were shooting at their haul trucks at night and they said look, can you fly drones at night, use the thermal sensors and sort of find these guys so we can catch them? And that's effectively where we started. But we very quickly realized, you know, sort of scaling operations to operate all through the evening wasn't really safe nor scalable for them and this really was the sort of that trigger point for us to go well, let's start investigating and bringing in autonomous hardware, AI, and complementing that with remote operations, so removing people from those risky areas and really starting to make aerial data and everyday accessible utility for not only just the tier one miners and the operation, the guys on the ground, but even the decision makers back at head office. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

Okay, and the company has just signed two material contracts in quick succession. An 18-month contract with Vault Minerals at King of the Hills and a three-year contract with Goldfields at the Gruyere Goldmine. So, what do these long-term agreements with T1 miners tell us about? How far your platform has come? 

Chris Clark Guest

Yeah, it's a really exciting you know, pivotal point for the technology and autonomous drones and it fundamentally shows the shift in the mindset from trialling this technology to overall trust in that it is becoming part of the stable of the operations. These are multi-year sort of commitments from these tier one miners is really starting to show like how reliant they're becoming in embedding our technology into their daily operations and really just proving that we're not just trialling or testing, it's not sort of a pipe dream anymore, but we're delivering value at scale. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

Okay, and the Gruyere contract includes daily autonomous flights, remotely managed from your Perth and Adelaide operating centres. So how significant is that for showing that xBot® and SiteTube® are now embedded into the day-to-day mining operations? 

Chris Clark Guest

Yeah, it's a real milestone, Andrew, and effectively, you know, I guess, well, let's say conceptually, you know, you're now removing people from those operations, sort of areas on site. They're flying this remotely, from thousands of kilometres away of a, of a satellite technology proving that remote autonomy and remote autonomous operations are not there anymore. It's happening today. 

It's happening safely and reliably, you know, every, every single day
 
 Andrew Musgrave Host

Okay, and now Vault Minerals has been a partner for several years. This new deal expands the scope to include remote xBot® operations and automated data processing. So how does this kind of expansion demonstrate the land and expand strategy you talk about? 

Chris Clark Guest

Yeah, volt and King of the Hill have been a really great customer of ours for quite a while and they were really the first trial site of where we put out our new technology and really, when it came into doing the renewals, of doing the new sort of contract, I think they could immediately see the benefit of what the xBot® and SiteTube® have provided, in addition to the onsite services that we're really currently providing. 

So, it's sort of the full evolution of our business model where we kind of started small, we proved the value and then we just really added on to that and where the autonomy and our onsite services can really work together and that's really kind of signalled one thing that we're seeing across multiple of all our other customers is that they just there's this insatiable demand for aerial data, and not only just high resolution data but data that is very frequent and very relevant, and so when you're kind of looking at pairing Vault and Goldfields together, the message is really clear for them that tier one miners are looking at this as a real time adoption within their current mining workflows and, by extrapolation, making RocketDNA as part of that overall operating toolkit. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

Looking now at the remote operating centre that you have in Perth, it is now fully operational and running 24-7. So, what role does this play in scaling the business and supporting customers across Australia and overseas? 

Chris Clark Guest

Yeah. So, Andrew, I think it's probably important to note that the technology is fully automated and autonomous, but because of CASA and the regulations is that they always require a human to be in the loop. So having the remote operations really kind of serves two functions for us. Number one it's from a planning and data quality perspective, so managing how all the requests come in through our Sky link application, how those then get scheduled and then assigned to the dozens of remote operators that we have working for us and effectively they're not flying the drones manually, they're watching the drones in action and it's essentially ensuring that the airspace remains clear, that there's no ground risk, we're not flying over people, and it allows us to really kind of scale globally. So, what we're effectively achieving with a very small team is dozens of flights which are all flying simultaneously remotely around the world and around the clock with our CASA certified BVLOS pilots, and that's effectively how we're delivering tier one service at a global scale without needing boots on the ground everywhere. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

June quarterly showed flight activity up 97% quarter on quarter in Australia and new deployments across BHP's Prominent Hill, a T1 coal mine in the Bowen Basin and multiple government infrastructure sites. So how is customer demand evolving?

Chris Clark Guest

Yeah, I think so. We really have now sort of gone beyond that to the phase one. And I guess, coming back to your land and expand question it's, you know, customers typically will deploy these units for one or two specific use cases, whether it be surveying or inspection related, but very quickly, sometimes even within the first couple of weeks. They're asking you know, how quickly can we scale this across multiple other departments? 

And so we're starting to experience, you know, multiple verticals across environmental and geotech geology applications within the mining site and then even on top of that is we're starting to see the applicability within energy companies, oil and gas companies, you know, and all of these different verticals and within each single company, we're just exposing the, you know, a massive client base that no one ever thought really existed and this is all really coming from these customers are just increasing their flight frequency, they're adding on these new applications, they're integrating it with their software tools and platforms and effectively automating their entire decision-making process and really relieving a lot of stress and pressure from their daily ops, because everyone's expected to do more with less and effectively. That's just making us the standard across all these sites. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

Now touching on offshore markets. You've delivered exports to Kamoa Copper in the DRC, run conveyor monitoring trials in Papua New Guinea and are preparing a record LIDAR survey in Gabon. So how do these international projects fit into your growth strategy? 

Chris Clark Guest

Yeah, we're always about following our tier one customers wherever they go, so we've got a lot of. You know, they always give us a lot of these hard problems to particularly solve, and I guess what we're seeing at a global scale is they really are struggling to resource and find the skills and the people who are prepared to go work in these very far and remote regions of the world. So, you know, whether it's Africa, Australia or PNG, you know our same workflow applies, so really allowing that scalability and that efficiency factors to come through, and that essentially gives us a global market opportunity without reinventing the wheel every single time, and that's what our customers love about it. You know the advent of Starlink, plugged directly into our solution, just means you can deploy anywhere and everywhere. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

Now in closing, for investors looking at AI mining tech or drones. What's the one message you'd like to leave with them about RocketDNA today? 

Chris Clark Guest

Yeah, I think the most important is that RocketDNA has really moved from the proof-of-concept phase to this proof of contract with these recent three-year deals. It's not just showing that customers go from a month to month to a six or a one-year deal, they're going straight to three-year deals because that's how quickly the return has been for these customers who've seen it in action, felt the data with their own hands, and that's what really makes this very exciting. Tier one miners signing multi-year deals, technology that is standardized and now embedded into their daily operations. And with massive upside because we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of all the other departments who are just requesting more and more data, more and more integration. And, yeah, and all I can say is you know, keep sort of an eye out on the business as we get more stuck into more government and security and public safety applications. 

Andrew Musgrave Host

Okay, Chris. Well, it's been great to chat again. So, thanks for your time. We wish you all the best and we look forward to further updates from RocketDNA in the upcoming months. 

Chris Clark Guest

Thank you, Andrew

Andrew Musgrave Host

That concludes this episode of ASX Briefs. Don't forget to subscribe and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.