Finance Associated Press, March 6 (edited by Zhao Hao).A month ago, AI mineral exploration unicorn Kobold Metals discovered a "world-class copper mine" at its Mingomba project in Zambia and compared the potential of the mine to the Kamoa-Kakula copper mine, which produces nearly 400,000 tonnes per annum.
Josh Goldman, co-founder and president of Kobold Metals, told the company's investors were particularly excited about the discovery at a time when the mining industry is struggling to keep pace with the metal-intensive energy transition.
They are delighted with the news because this is what we intend to do, which is to discover, find and develop the mineral resources needed for the energy transition," Goldman said, "This is the company's first major win, and it's one of the most extraordinary orebodies in the world." ”
It is understood that Kobold Metals is a mining start-up headquartered in Silicon Valley, and its investors include Andreessen Horowitz, a well-known venture capital company in Silicon Valley, Norwegian energy giant Equinor, the world's largest mining group BHP Billiton, and Breakthrough Energy**, founded by Gates. Supporters of the ** include well-known billionaires such as Bridgewater's Ray Dalio, Virgin Group's Richard Branson, and Amazon's Jeff Bezos.Mr Kobold said the company used artificial intelligence to create a "treasure map" to help find new deposits of copper, lithium, cobalt, nickel and more. At present, the company has more than 60 exploratory projects in many countries around the world.
"The Central African Copperbelt is where you can find this extraordinary grade in the world, and that's why we're there," Goldman said. "The company is now focused on advancing the Mingomba project and expects to commence copper production within 10 years.
Kobold Metals says most of the copper mines currently mined have ore grades of 0around 6%, while its Mingomba deposit has a copper grade of more than 5%. "This means that you only need to mine a small amount of ore to get the same amount of copper. ”
For 0For 5% of the deposits, you have to mine 200 kg of rock to get 1 kg of copper, while for 5% of the deposits, you only need to mine 20 kg of rock to get 1 kg of copper. As a result, you have a much smaller impact on the planet and create a lot less waste. ”
In addition to this, Kobold is also looking to discover the next major mineral treasure trove, "More resources may be found, the question is where is the next mingomba?" In recent years, there has been a growing demand for copper in clean energy, with Zambia being the second largest copper producer in Africa after Congo.
Goldman also mentioned that the company plans to go public in the next three to four years**, and we do anticipate that in due course, becoming a public company is likely to be the best way to finance the business. ”