Fletcher completes acquisition of Cannon Mining

The Cannon Mining product line includes drill jumbos, roof bolters, ANFO rigs, scalers, and utility trucks for the underground hard rock mining industry. Photo: Cannon Mining

J.H. Fletcher & Co. has completed its acquisition of the Cannon Mining division from Trident Maritime Systems Heavy Equipment Group.

The acquisition is expected to further strengthen the current mining equipment product lines offered through both the J.H. Fletcher & Co. and Cannon Brands, as well as enhance the ability of J.H. Fletcher & Co. to support their growing customer base both domestically and internationally.

J.H. Fletcher & Co. was founded in 1937 by James Herbert Fletcher, a consulting engineer, to provide mobile equipment for underground coal mining. Fletcher was a pioneer in the design of rock drills to install roof bolts. Advancements in safety and productivity of roof bolting in the USA have always been associated with Fletcher, who invented and patented aspects of the automated temporary roof support system (ATRS). Fletcher expanded its product range in the late 20th century to include degasification drills, probe drills, mobile roof supports, remote operated roof drills, and scalers. In 2003, the equipment portfolio was expanded to include face jumbos with percussive hammer drills and a division was set up to focus on underground industrial mineral and hard rock mining.

Today, J. H. Fletcher & Co. engineers, manufactures, and supports custom-built equipment designed to meet a variety of specific mining and heavy industry needs. The focus continues to be on enhancing worker safety, operation productivity, and equipment reliability in underground mines.

The acquisition of Cannon Equipment will provide over 30 years of experience building underground mining equipment for industrial mineral and metal mines. The Cannon portfolio of drill jumbos, scalers, and roof bolters will further broaden J.H. Fletcher & Co.’s existing product lines. Additionally, the articulated frame utility vehicle product line will be new to the J.H. Fletcher & Co.’s line of equipment, including scissor trucks, crane trucks, man baskets, fuel/lube packages and more.

The Cannon equipment portfolio will reportedly remain intact and operate under the new name Cannon Mining Equipment LLC. Previous Cannon sales, service, parts, and engineering teams will remain the same, maintaining uninterrupted product support.

The primary change will be the location of parts support and machine assembly for domestic customers, with both functions shifting from the original Michigan facility to the J.H. Fletcher & Co. factory in Huntington, W.V. Cannon Mining Latin America will be operated as a subsidiary of Cannon Mining Equipment LLC and handle the Mexican market directly.