Last summer, mining Kobold made a splash When it said it discovered in Zambia one of the world’s largest copper deposits in more than a decade.
Now, another startup, Land aiexclusively told Techcrunch about his own discovery: promising deposits of critical minerals in some parts of Australia, which other mining clothing ignored for decades. Although it is not yet known if they are as large as Kobold’s, the news suggests that future supplies of critical minerals are likely to emerge from a combination of field data analyzed by artificial intelligence.
“The real, real limit [in mining] It is not as geographical as technological, “Roman Teslyuk, founder and general manager of Earth Ai, told Techcrunch.
Earth Ai identified deposits of copper, cobalt and gold in the Northern Territory and Silver, Molibden, and Tin at another in New South Wales, 310 miles (500 kilometers) northwest of Sydney.
Land AI came out of Teslyuk’s graduation studies. Teslyuk, coming from Ukraine, worked for a doctorate at the University of Sydney, where he became acquainted with the mining industry in Australia. There the government owns the rights to mineral depots, and it rents them in six -year terms. Since the 1970s, he said, research companies must require their data to National Ar Archive.
“For some reason, no one uses them,” he said. “If I could build an algorithm that can absorb all knowledge and learn from the failures and successes of millions of geologists in the past, I can make much better predictions about where to find minerals in the future.”
Teslyuk started Earth AI as a software company focused on making predictions for potential deposits, then approaching customers who may be interested in exploring websites further. But the customers were hesitant to invest, partly because they did not want to bet millions about the predictions of unproven technology.
“Mining is a very conservative industry,” Teslyuk said. “Everything outside the approved dogma is considered a heresy.”
So Earth AI decided to develop its own drilling equipment to prove that the sites it identified were as promising as its software suggested. The company was accepted to the spring 2019 by Y Combinator, and it spent the following years refining its hardware and program. In January, Land AI raised $ 20 million in series B.
Although the company uses AI to search for minerals as KoboldTeslyuk says it needs a different handle. Earth Ai’s algorithms, he said, are trained to scan wide areas quickly and effectively to find deposits that might otherwise be omitted.
“The way we used to explore for metals in the past, the 20th Century, it just takes very, very long. It takes decades to find something, “Teslyuk said.” With a modern rhythm of the world, you just can’t wait so long. ”
