KoBold聽Metals, backed by a coalition of billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, said on Monday that aims at opening a new copper-cobalt mine in Zambia within 10 years.
The California-based company, which earlier this year earmarked $150 million for the Mingomba project, said the plan is to search for more deposits at the asset, said to be聽the world鈥檚 highest-grade undeveloped copper deposit.聽
Kobold, which also counts the聽world鈥檚 top miner BHP聽as one of its shareholders, expects to complete additional exploration at the property next year.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very attractive project and we have said within a decade we would want Mingomba to be a producing mine,鈥� the company鈥檚 CEO Mfikeyi Makayi, told Reuters.
Its Mingomba copper project in Zambia, Africa鈥檚 second biggest producer of copper,聽contains 247 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 3.64% copper. This figure represents about six times higher grades than those found in Chile, the world鈥檚 top copper producing nation, according to KoBold.聽聽
The estimated cost of building the mine has been pegged at around $1 billion. It will be done through a joint venture with Australian private equity firm EMR Capital and state-backed miner ZCCM Investing Holdings (LON: ZCC).
AI-led exploration
Kobold鈥檚 quest for battery metals聽began three years ago in Canada,聽after it聽acquired rights to an area of about 1,000 square km聽(386 sq. miles)聽in northern Quebec, just south of Glencore鈥檚 Raglan nickel mine.
It聽now has about a dozen exploration properties聽in places including Zambia, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Western Australia, which聽have resulted from joint ventures like聽with BHP听补苍诲听with BlueJay Mining聽(LON: JAY)聽to聽explore for聽minerals in Greenland.聽
All those assets聽contain or are expected to be聽sources of聽battery metals.聽聽
Using artificial intelligence, Kobold聽aims to create a 鈥淕oogle Maps鈥� of the Earth鈥檚 crust, with a special focus on finding copper, cobalt, nickel and lithium deposits.聽
It collects and analyzes multiple streams of data 鈥� from old drilling results to satellite imagery 鈥� to better understand where new deposits might be found.聽聽
Algorithms applied to the data collected determine the geological patterns that indicate a potential deposit of cobalt, which occurs naturally alongside nickel and copper.聽
The technology can locate resources that may have eluded more traditional geologists and can help miners decide where to acquire land and drill, the company said.
Copper is in high-demand due to its use in renewable energy and electric vehicles, but big, new deposits are rare.聽
It is estimated that the global copper industry needs聽to spend聽more than $100 billion聽to build mines able to close what could be an annual supply deficit of 4.7 million tonnes by 2030.