- The mineral prospecting firm KoBold Metals is backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
- According to KoBold’s CEO, a new cooperation with BHP will look for metals needed in electric vehicles.
- According to House, the cooperation may someday provide metals for Tesla automobiles.
- The world’s second-largest mining firm has linked up with an artificial intelligence business backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos to seek metals needed in electric cars.
KoBold Metals and BHP will collaborate in Australia to look for lithium, nickel, cobalt, and copper, according to Kobold CEO Kurt House.
The three-year cooperation between KoBold and BHP might assist obtain the nickel used in Tesla vehicles, according to House.
BHP inked an agreement with Tesla in July to supply nickel for the electric automaker’s batteries.
“It’s possible that those resources will wind up becoming a part of that deal if we make nickel and cobalt findings together,” House added. “Tesla is amazing, and we could simply contribute to it in the future.” There’s no doubt about that. “They’re the leading company in electric vehicles,” House said, adding that KoBold’s mission was to support the whole EV sector.
KoBold, a Silicon Valley-based private mineral exploration firm, utilizes artificial intelligence to gather data on where to dig for raw minerals used in electric vehicles.
House didn’t specify how much the firms are estimated to invest in the initiative but said it will cost huge amounts of money over the next two years.
According to House, mining will begin in western Australia, encompassing 2 million square kilometers of territory.
The businesses picked Australia since it has the proper materials for EVs, as well as excellent labor and environmental requirements, according to House.
“Any discoveries we make there will be exploited in an ethical and environmentally sound manner,” he added.
Breakthrough Energy Resources, a climatic and technological fund backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Bloomberg founder Michael Bloomberg, is one of KoBold’s major investors.
Gates and Bezos had an impact on the EV metals search, according to House, but he couldn’t say how much Gates’ fund had spent on the initiative.
Andreessen Horowitz, a well-known Silicon Valley venture capital firm, and Equinor, the Norwegian state-owned energy business, are among KoBold’s other partners.
KoBold said in August that it will spend $15 million in Greenland with mining company Bluejay looking for EV materials.
