KoBold Metals, the mining company backed by a coalition of billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, is expanding its search for lithium and nickel to Namibia.
, Mfikeyi Makayi, CEO of KoBold鈥檚 African operations, said the company is now prospecting for critical minerals in the southern and central regions of the African country.
Using artificial intelligence, KoBold aims to create a 鈥淕oogle Maps鈥� of the Earth鈥檚 crust, with a special focus on locating copper, cobalt, nickel and lithium deposits.
It secured licenses in Namibia in the third quarter of last year. The country, known primarily for uranium production, is not traditionally associated with lithium or nickel mining.
鈥淭his is why we鈥檙e exploring,鈥� Makayi told Bloomberg. 鈥淛ust because it鈥檚 not known doesn鈥檛 mean the opportunities to look deeper aren鈥檛 there.鈥�
She added that the company is still in the early stages of prospecting and field exploration before it begins drilling.
Copper expansion
The company also plans to invest $2 billion in the Mingomba copper-cobalt mine in Zambia, which is said to be the world鈥檚 highest-grade undeveloped large copper deposit. Mingomba contains 247 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 3.64% copper.
KoBold aims to produce over 300,000 tonnes of copper by the mid-2030s.
KoBold was valued at nearly $3 billion in its latest fundraising round.
The company began its quest for battery metals four years ago in Canada after acquiring rights to an area in northern Quebec, just south of Glencore鈥檚 Raglan nickel mine, where it detected lithium.
The start-up now has about a dozen exploration properties in locations including Zambia, Namibia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Quebec, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Western Australia. These properties have resulted from joint ventures with BHP (ASX: BHP) and BlueJay Mining (LON: JAY) to explore for minerals in Greenland.
KoBold also has ongoing exploration activities in South Korea and the United States.