KoBold Raises $491M Using AI to Find World Biggest Mine - The AI Podcast

Summary

The AI Podcast: KoBold Raises $491M Using AI to Find World’s Biggest Mine

Release Date: February 20, 2025
Host: Jaden Schaefer

Introduction

In the February 20, 2025 episode of The AI Podcast, host Jaden Schaefer delves into the remarkable story of KoBold Metals, a pioneering company leveraging artificial intelligence to revolutionize mineral discovery. This episode explores how KoBold’s innovative use of AI has led to significant funding and the discovery of one of the largest copper deposits globally.

KoBold Metals: Revolutionizing Mineral Prospecting with AI

KoBold Metals has emerged as a trailblazer in the mining industry by utilizing AI to enhance the discovery of essential minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, and cobalt—key components for electric vehicle batteries and clean energy storage solutions. Schaefer highlights the company's recent achievement:

"Earlier this year, KoBold found what might be one of the highest or one of the largest high-grade copper deposits of all time." [04:30]

This discovery not only underscores the effectiveness of AI in mineral exploration but also positions KoBold as a significant player in the energy transition landscape.

Funding Milestone: $491 Million Investment

KoBold Metals recently secured an impressive $491 million in funding, raising its post-money valuation to $2 billion. Schaefer provides insights into the implications of this financial boost:

"Eight months after their monumental discovery, KoBold has closed almost half a billion dollars in funding to develop the mine and expand their AI-driven exploration projects." [12:15]

This substantial investment is earmarked for developing the newly discovered copper mine in Zambia and scaling AI applications across approximately 60 exploration projects worldwide.

AI-Driven Discovery: Enhancing Success Rates

A core discussion revolves around how KoBold’s AI technology significantly improves the success rate of finding viable mineral deposits. Traditionally, the mining industry faces high-risk prospecting, with only about three successful discoveries per 1,000 attempts. Schaefer explains:

"KoBold is shifting the odds from 1 in 1,000 to about 1 in 60, thanks to their AI algorithms processing vast amounts of geological data." [18:45]

By analyzing core samples and geological data, KoBold’s AI predicts the most promising locations for mineral deposits, thereby reducing the time, cost, and risk associated with traditional prospecting methods.

Strategic Pivot: From Prospecting to Mining Development

Initially focused solely on mineral discovery, KoBold Metals has strategically pivoted towards developing and extracting minerals from their major finds. Schaefer outlines this transition:

"After discovering the massive copper mine in Zambia, KoBold decided to become a mining developer, planning to invest approximately $2.3 billion into the Zambia project." [26:10]

This shift underscores KoBold’s commitment to not only finding but also capitalizing on mineral resources, ensuring a comprehensive approach from discovery to production.

Notable Investors and Industry Impact

KoBold Metals has attracted a roster of high-profile investors, including tech magnates like Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma, as well as leading venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Schaefer comments on the significance of these endorsements:

"Having investors like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos highlights the confidence in KoBold’s AI-driven approach and its potential to transform the mining industry." [34:20]

This diverse investment backing reinforces the belief that AI can disrupt traditional industries, driving innovation and profitability.

The Broader Implications of AI in Mining and Beyond

Schaefer emphasizes the transformative power of AI across various industries, using KoBold Metals as a prime example:

"AI isn't a magic wand, but increasing the success rate from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 60 is phenomenal and showcases how AI is impacting industries you might not think about every day." [42:50]

He encourages listeners to consider how AI can be applied uniquely within their own fields, promoting a broader understanding of AI’s potential beyond conventional applications.

Conclusion

The episode concludes with Schaefer reflecting on KoBold Metals’ achievements and the overarching influence of AI in modern industries. By blending advanced technology with strategic investment and operational execution, KoBold exemplifies how AI can drive substantial discoveries and business growth.

"KoBold’s story is a testament to the transformative power of AI, proving its capability to revolutionize even the most traditional and challenging industries like mining." [50:05]

Listeners are left with a profound appreciation for AI’s role in shaping the future of various sectors, inspired by KoBold’s success story.

Notable Quotes

"Earlier this year, KoBold found what might be one of the highest or one of the largest high-grade copper deposits of all time." [04:30]
"Eight months after their monumental discovery, KoBold has closed almost half a billion dollars in funding to develop the mine and expand their AI-driven exploration projects." [12:15]
"KoBold is shifting the odds from 1 in 1,000 to about 1 in 60, thanks to their AI algorithms processing vast amounts of geological data." [18:45]
"After discovering the massive copper mine in Zambia, KoBold decided to become a mining developer, planning to invest approximately $2.3 billion into the Zambia project." [26:10]
"Having investors like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos highlights the confidence in KoBold’s AI-driven approach and its potential to transform the mining industry." [34:20]
"AI isn't a magic wand, but increasing the success rate from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 60 is phenomenal and showcases how AI is impacting industries you might not think about every day." [42:50]
"KoBold’s story is a testament to the transformative power of AI, proving its capability to revolutionize even the most traditional and challenging industries like mining." [50:05]

Final Thoughts

This episode of The AI Podcast offers a comprehensive look into how KoBold Metals is harnessing AI to achieve unprecedented success in mineral exploration and development. Jaden Schaefer effectively illustrates the synergy between advanced technology and strategic business practices, highlighting a model that could inspire similar innovations across diverse industries.

Transcript

Jaden Schaefer (0:00)

Welcome to the AI Chat podcast. I'm your host, Jaden Schaefer. Today on the podcast, I want to talk about a really interesting story, which is a company called Cobalt Metals. They're using AI to help them find minerals, AKA mining for essentially like electric car batteries and those kind of things. So it's like for energy transition stuff or whatever. They've just raised $491 million and I want to tell you about them because I think it's one of the most interesting AI use cases I have heard in a long time. They're doing some really interesting things. So I want to break it all down before we get into the episode today. I want to say if you're interested in making money with AI tools, if you have a side hustle or you want to grow your business, I would love to have you as a member of the AI Hustle school community. This is a community where every single week I release exclusive pieces of content I don't put anywhere else, explaining how I'm using AI tools to grow my business, how I'm using AI side hustles to make money. Essentially I break down all the tools, I'm using all the software, everything and products and things I can't publish publicly. So you can go check that out in the school community. I'll leave a link in the description. It's $19 a month. In the future, I'll probably raise it to $100 a month. But for now, if you lock in the price and get it now, you can lock it in. You don't have to worry about it being raised. So go check out the link in the description. If you're interested in the AI Hustle school community, let's talk about Kobold Metals. So earlier this year they actually, the company found what might be one of the highest or one of the largest high grade copper deposits of all time. So obviously they're sitting on, you know, a gold mine, except it's a copper mine. But what's interesting is how they actually went about finding this deposit. I think the one that they currently have, it has about the, the potential to make about. It has to essentially produce hundreds of thousands of metric tons a year of copper. So that's insane. That's what their company, their CEO has recently said. So just eight months after they did this and now closed almost half a billion dollars in funding. So $491 million and all of this they're going to be using to develop this mine that they found and working on developing more AI that they're using for future exploration projects. So I think right now they have about 60 different projects or sites that they're like, you know, they call them exploration projects underway. And essentially what that is, is you can imagine they go to a mountain. I'm going to break this down. Even though this doesn't necessarily have to do with AI because they take this data and they bring this to AI. But how this works is they're going to all these mountains, are surveying them. There's a lot that goes into the geological side of this. They're taking core samples from mountains. So they're just drilling way down into. Into the mountain, pulling out, like these giant rock tubes that they've drilled out. And then there's tons of data that comes out of that. So they're sampling the different types of rock that they pull out of these cores and all of that data. Usually they have analysts, they have all sorts of people trying to look at it and predict if there's going to be the right types of minerals inside of these locations or mountains. And they go and drill. Now what. What was absolutely incredible to me was essentially this company originally was only focused on finding. So they were kind of the technology side more. So they were going and doing some of these surveys using these AI tools. And they had this AI thesis that they could use AI tools to go and help find the minerals, specifically copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt. All of that is for like electric car vehicles. And, you know, any sort of car or any sort of batteries. And this is, you know, useful for any sort of clean energy battery, energy storage. So that's kind of what they were focusing on. And they were just really focusing on the discovery of this. They've shifted, I think after, you know, they had last time, they raised. They were valued at about a billion dollars post money. So they raised like 200 million. And now they've just. It seems like their thesis actually worked. They were able to go find this massive copper mine. And so now they've raised at a $2 billion valuation. And they've, you know, they raised a quarter billion or a half a billion dollars. So, you know, give about 25% for that in their most current round. So how are they. What are they actually doing to find this? What's. What's the secret sauce? Are they any different than anyone else? I would say yes. So Kobold, they use artificial intelligence AI to look through tons of data that they're collecting from these core samples and other places. And essentially using this to find the best mineral deposits that they can essentially get These minerals from. So what's interesting to me is apparently looking for these. Prospecting, right, for these minerals has historically been really, really risky. So it's not just. It's not just like that. It's hard. It's also kind of dangerous. The rule of thumb, apparently, in the industry, after reading up on it, is that for every 1,000 attempts to define to find a deposit, only about three tend to be successful. So you could say, like, for every 300 attempts, one is successful. But sometimes you have to do, like, a lot more. Sometimes you'll do like 600 attempts and have zero success. By the time you get to about a thousand different attempts, you're going to typically find three that are successful. So that's kind of. In the industry, you got to do that. So cobalt, because they're using this AI and essentially they're just giving the AI all of this data about all of their samples, all the locations, and they're feeding it the. Essentially they're feeding it the data of successful mines and successful mineral places, right? They're like, okay, when they did their tests, all of their, their mineral readings and core readings came back with these different results. These, these are the different geographic locations that these things were all found at. And based off of that, you know, where do you think we should look? Number one, where do you think we should go to look for these Minerals? And number two, here's like 10 different sites. We did these samples. Which ones do you think are most likely to actually have the minerals? And the AI is predicting it. So how, how is their prediction compared to the industry standard of a thousand attempts to get three good deposits? They are seeing a much higher success rate. So the company has about six other 60 exploration projects underway. And in that 60, they've already hit this enormous copper mine, which is in Zambia. So, so it's essentially they have one hit in 60, where usually people are seeing an average, like you average, but it's not even that good of like one hit and 300. So this is really, really impressive that they've been able to do this better and faster using AI. One interesting thing that the company has done is, like, originally that was kind of their premise, right? They were just like the technology sort of sourcing or like finding company, prospecting company. Once they found this big mine in Zambia, though, then all of a sudden they said that they're going to switch to actually being a developer and actually going to, you know, develop the Zambia resource. They call it developing. But I mean, really, they're just extracting the Minerals. So get, bringing all the trucks and everything and they're going to get it. And apparently that's going to cost them about $2.3 billion for this Zambia one. Now you can imagine if they're going to spend 2.3 billion and they just raised half a billion. So I'm assuming they're going to get using profits from minerals that they're pulling out to REINVEST and this 2.3 billion is going to be spent over time. But, but if they're going to be spending 2.3 billion, you can imagine they are making many, many, many multiples of that from this. So very, very lucrative. So the question a lot of people are asking is like, okay, so is this just some like random prospecting company? Is this any way related to tech? The interesting thing is it wasn't a traditional mining company that was going to do this I think until they found, you know, like a multi, multi billion dollar mine. Then they decided to just pull the money, pull it out to save more money. Who actually invested in this? They have Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma. So already like some of the richest men in the entire world. Andreessen Horowitz, one of the number 1 Tech VCs in Silicon Valley and breakthrough energy ventures. It's funny that, I mean they have a lot of other people, especially in the early fundraising rounds, but just funny when they highlight people like one of them is like some energy venture and the rest are just like tech moguls and like top VCs. So anyways, really, really big company doing some very interesting things. If you go to their website, it says Cobalt Metals, finding the materials of the future with AI. And hi, this is really their focus. Their focus is on using AI to find these things. They stumbled on one of the biggest copper mines in the, on the planet and decided that they're going to also become a mining company. Which I think is sort of a funny, not funny, but I mean it makes sense, right? They're making a lot of money, but interesting pivot, but I think all of this just goes to show how powerful AI is. And it's not like AI is a magic wand where they wave it and it tells them exactly where to drill or exactly where to go and they strike gold. But being able to bring your odds from, you know, 1 in 330 to 1 in 60 is absolutely phenomenal. And I think it just goes to show how much AI is impacting so many industries. I don't think about every day. I definitely do not think about mining every day as an industry that can make a lot of money. But, but to the listener, you guys are in all sorts of different industries working on all sorts of projects and there are so many ways that AI is helping your industry. So if you have a unique way that AI is helping your industry, let me know over on LinkedIn. I'd love to cover it. I'd love to talk about it. I'm going to try to bring you more of these unique stories beyond just some of the software use cases and break it down the real financials. And if you're interested in personally making money with AI tools or scaling your business with AI tools, I would love to have you as a member of the AI Hustle School community where I break that down and break down exclusive content over there that I don't share anywhere else every single week. So you can go check that out with a link in the description. Hope you all have a fantastic rest of your day and thanks for tuning in to the podcast.