Since this year, new energy vehicles and related industries have attracted much attention, and the strong demand for electric vehicles has led to a more serious problem in the supply of battery materials. BHP Billiton on Wednesday announced plans to team up with KoBold Metals, an artificial intelligence exploration company, to search for mineral materials such as copper and nickel for batteries in Australia and elsewhere around the world.
BHP is ramping up its portfolio of bets on so-called "commodities for the future". It also expects growing demand for electric cars and clean energy to boost metals prices in coming years, which in turn will boost mining companies' profits.
KoBold Metals uses robots (11.060, -0.14, -1.25%) and artificial intelligence to explore battery materials. The company's major investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a climate and technology fund backed by a number of ultra-wealthy individuals, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
Mining companies have been using machine learning to explore underground sources in recent years and have made some significant discoveries, such as Rio Tinto's Winu copper project, which has estimated total reserves of 503m tonnes.
Keenan Jennings, VICE-PRESIDENT of metals exploration at BHP billiton, said most of the shallow deposits had already been discovered globally, but the remaining resources were likely to be deep underground and harder to find from the surface.
He said the partnership would help BHP use the advanced technology to explore resources that lie deep underground.
KoBold CEO Kurt House said the exploration will cover more than 500,000 square kilometers of western Australia.
He noted that most of the proven deposits in the past few decades have been in shallow areas, and the company plans to dig in deep areas between 200 and 1,500 meters below ground, which are mostly less explored and may hold many undiscovered reserves.
KoBold Metals currently has dozens of partners in 20 countries and regions, including sub-Saharan Africa, North America and Australia, seeking copper, cobalt, nickel and lithium resources.
