Last Tag -Sun, the start of mining Kobold make a splash When it said it discovered in Zambia one of the largest copper deposits in the world for more than a decade.
Now, another start, Earth ai. While not yet knowing if they are as big as Kobold's, the news suggests that future supplies of critical minerals are likely to arise from a combination of field data that is parsed by artificial intelligence.
“The actual, real boundary [in mining] is less geography because it is technological, ”Roman Teslyuk, founder and CEO of Earth Ai, told Techcrunch.
Earth Ai recognized copper, cobalt, and gold deposits in northern territory and silver, molybdenum, and tin in another in New South Wales, 310 miles (500 kilometers) northern -west of Sydney.
Earth Ai emerged from the study of the Teslyuk graduate. Teslyuk, a native of the -ukraine, works towards a doctor's title at the University of Sydney, where he is familiar with the Australian mining industry. There, the government owns the rights to mineral deposits, and leases it to a six-year term. Since the 1970s, he said, research companies have been required to submit their data to a national archive.
“For some reason, no one uses them,” he said. “If I could create an algorithm that could absorb all that knowledge and learn from the failures and success of millions of geologists in the past, I can make better predictions about where to find minerals in the future.”
Teslyuk started Earth Ai as a software company dedicated to making predictions about potential deposits, then approaching customers who may be interested in exploring the sites. But customers are hesitant to invest, in part because they do not want to bet millions in the predictions of an unspoken technology.
“Mining is a very conservative industry,” Teslyuk said. “Everyone outside of the approved dogma is considered heretic.”
So Earth Ai decided to develop its own drilling equipment to prove that the sites it recognized were as promise as its software suggests. The company was accepted in the Cohort of Y Combinator 2019, and it spent the next few years refining its hardware and software. In January, Earth Ai raised $ 20 million series B.
Although the company uses AI to search for minerals such as KoboldTeslyuk said it needs a different tack. Earth Ai's algorithms, he said, are trained to scan wide areas quickly and efficiently to find deposits that are otherwise unnoticed.
“The way we used to explore for metals in the past, the 20th Century, it only lasts, very long. It takes decades to find something, “Teslyuk said.” At the modern speed of the world, you can't wait long. “
