Earth’s algorithms have found critical minerals in places that everyone else is ignored

Last summer, Kobold mining boot took a dip when he said he had discovered in Zambia one of the largest copper deposits in the world in more than a decade.

Now, another start, Land AIHe told TechCrunch exclusively for his own discovery: promising deposits of critical minerals in parts of Australia that have been ignoring other mining components for decades. While it is not yet known whether it is as large as Kobold’s, the News suggest that future critical mineral supplies are likely to result from a combination of field data analyzed by artificial intelligence.

‘The real, real borders [in mining] It is not as geographical as it is technological, “said Roman Teslyuk, founder and chief executive of Earth AI, in TechCrunch.

Earth AI has identified copper, cobalt and gold deposits in northern territory and silver, molybdenum and tin in another in New South Wales, 310 miles (500 kilometers) northwest of Sydney.

Earth AI came from Teslyuk’s postgraduate studies. Teslyuk, a native of Ukraine, worked for a doctorate at the University of Sydney, where he became familiar with the mining industry in Australia. There, the government holds the rights to mineral deposits and leases them in six years. Since the 1970s, he said, exploration companies have been required to submit their data to a national archive.

“For some reason, no one uses them,” he said. “If I could build an algorithm that can absorb all this knowledge and learn from the failures and successes of millions of geologists in the past, I can make much better forecasts to find minerals in the future.”

Teslyuk started Earth AI as a software company focused on making forecasts on possible deposits, then approaching customers who may be interested in exploring further sites. But customers were reluctant to invest, partly because they did not want to bet millions in the forecasts of an unproven technology.

“Mining is a very conservative industry,” Teslyuk said. “Everything out of approved doctrine is considered a heresy.”

Thus, Earth AI decided to develop its own drilling equipment to prove that the locations identified were as promising as its software suggested. The company was accepted to the 2019 Spring team of Y Combinator and spent the following years improving its material and software. In January, Earth AI set a series of $ 20 million B.

Although the company uses AI to search for minerals such as Kobold, Teslyuk says he is getting a different glue. Earth’s algorithms AI, he said, are trained to scan the areas quickly and effectively to find deposits that otherwise could have been overlooked.

“The way we used to explore for metals in the past, 20^th century, it takes a long time. It takes decades to find something, “Teslyuk said.” With the modern rhythm of the world, you just can’t wait for so much. ”