BHP strikes exploration deal with Jeff Bezos-backed startup
BHP Group is joining forces to explore for metals crucial to the energy transition with a startup backed by a group of tycoons including Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
The world’s biggest miner has entered an alliance with Silicon Valley-based KoBold Metals Co. to deploy its artificial intelligence technology to look for metals like cobalt, nickel and copper, which are used in electrical vehicle chargers and batteries. The two companies will jointly fund and operate exploration programs -- initially in Western Australia -- and will each have the right to share in any identified prospects.
KoBold has used data-crunching algorithms to build what’s been described as a Google Maps for the Earth’s crust. The technology can locate resources that may have eluded more traditionally-minded geologists, and helps miners to decide where to acquire land and drill, the company said.
The tie-up offers an opportunity to access exploration databases built up by BHP over many years, Kurt House, KoBold’s chief executive officer, said in an interview. “In Western Australia, there’s extensive information. A lot of this data is dark data – it hasn’t been used more than once.”
Shareholders of KoBold Metals also include Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Norwegian oil major Equinor ASA and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a fund backed by a dozen high-profile investors including Bezos, Gates and Ray Dalio, as well as Michael Bloomberg, founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
“Globally, shallow ore deposits have largely been discovered, and remaining resources are likely deeper underground and harder to see from the surface,” Keenan Jennings, vice president at BHP Metals Exploration, said in a statement. “This alliance will combine historical data, artificial intelligence, and geoscience expertise to uncover what has previously been hidden.”
KoBold now has about a dozen exploration properties around the world that have resulted from joint ventures and tie-ups like the one with BHP, House said. “BHP engaged us, and we had many detailed discussions about KoBold’s technology,” he said. “Our approach is very different, and as such, various partners are keen to have ringside seats to see it deployed.”
BHP inks exploration deal with Gates and
Bezos-backed KoBold Metals
Cecilia Jamasmie | September 8, 2021 |
KoBold has used data-crunching algorithms to build what’s been described as a Google Maps for the Earth’s crust. (Stock image.)
BHP (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) has struck a deal to use artificial intelligence tools developed by KoBold Metals, a start-up backed by a coalition of billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, to look for critical materials used in electric vehicles (EVs) and clean energy technologies.
The world’s largest miner and the Silicon Valley-based tech firm will jointly fund and operate exploration using data processing technology to help predict the location of metals such as cobalt, nickel and copper, starting in Western Australia.
KOBOLD, BACKED BY A COALITION OF BILLIONAIRES INCLUDING BILL GATES AND JEFF BEZOS, AIMS TO CREATE A “GOOGLE MAPS” OF THE EARTH’S CRUST
The partnership will help BHP find more of the “future-facing” commodities it has vowed to focus on, while offering KoBold an opportunity to access exploration databases built up by the mining giant over decades.
“Globally, shallow ore deposits have largely been discovered, and remaining resources are likely deeper underground and harder to see from the surface,” Keenan Jennings, vice president at BHP Metals Exploration, said in a statement. “This alliance will combine historical data, artificial intelligence, and geoscience expertise to uncover what has previously been hidden.”
KoBold, founded in 2018, counts among its backers big names such as Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. The latter is financed by well-known billionaires including Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg, American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Ray Dalio, and Virgin Group’s founder Richard Branson.
Not a miner
KoBold, as its chief executive officer Kurt House has stated multiple times, does not intend to be a mine operator “ever.”
The company’s quest for battery metals began last year in Canada, after it acquired rights to an area of about 1,000 square km (386 sq. miles) in northern Quebec, just south of Glencore’s Raglan nickel mine.
It now has about a dozen exploration properties in places such as Zambia, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Western Australia, which have resulted from joint ventures like the one with BHP. The common denominator of those assets is that they contain or are expected to be sources of battery metals.
KOBOLD HAS ABOUT A DOZEN EXPLORATION PROPERTIES IN PLACES SUCH AS CANADA, ZAMBIA AND WESTERN AUSTRALIA, WHICH HAVE RESULTED FROM JOINT VENTURES LIKE THE ONE WITH BHP
Last month it signed a joint venture agreement with BlueJay Mining (LON: JAY) to explore for minerals in Greenland.
The firm aims to create a “Google Maps” of the Earth’s crust, with a special focus on finding cobalt deposits. It collects and analyzes multiple streams of data — from old drilling results to satellite imagery — to better understand where new deposits might be found.
Algorithms applied to the data collected determine the geological patterns that indicate a potential deposit of cobalt, which occurs naturally alongside nickel and copper.
The technology can locate resources that may have eluded more traditionally-minded geologists and can help miners decide where to acquire land and drill, the company said.
KOBOLD ARE MINING CREATURES FROM ROLE PLAYING GAMES
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