Exploration
Historically, more than 99% of exploration projects fail to become mines, according to KoBold Metals, another leading player in AI mineral exploration. This rate of failing to put the drilling machine on the right spot, from the start, creates a serious environmental impact, as a high-footprint field operation. This is where VerAI’s technology and its approach to exploration has a huge advantage, because it works remotely, searching in the data space where its physical footprint is non-existent. It can conduct its exploration and discovery processes without needing to interfere with the environment and local communities, avoiding any unnecessary tension before the minerals have even been located. Going even further, it also offers the opportunity for local communities to lead any mineral development projects on their land, by engaging with VerAI. “We can highlight the specific and high- potential locations for different minerals in their land, without creating any damage and allowing them to drive the process instead of being reactive to exploration results conducted by others who not always align with the community’s best interest.” The communities, Frastai continues, aren’t necessarily opposed to mining operations in their area. “They just want to do it right. And they want to make sure that their culture and cultural assets will remain protected,” he says. “If those communities have the information they need upfront, instead of being constantly alert and the last one informed when something is happening, I think we’ll find that there’s no real conflict here.” In 2024, he expects VerAI to continue its efforts to engage with those communities that would like to take the lead exploring their own in areas, and he believes this will be key to sustainable exploration. As much as the world needs critical minerals for its net zero future, it doesn’t make much sense if you have to despoil the land and create conflict with its local owners in the process. “People often talk about ESG in the exploration industry, but it’s very hard to transform this into something tangible,” Frastai notes. “But VerAI’s technology and our approach to this, I think, creates great opportunity.”
A fresh set of AIs It should be said, too, that VerAI are far from newcomers to the market, having been in the mineral exploration business for over ten years. At the same time, this still grants the company a fresh set of eyes – or AIs – according to Frastai. “VerAI’s founders have a very strong background coming from intelligence, the art of discovery […] We are bringing a unique approach and methodology into mineral exploration, but it’s not a walk in the park either – creating a systemic and systematic
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platform that dramatically improves the probability of discovery is a huge challenge.” However, in some ways the mining industry is still operating within its comfort zone. There are many demands around the need for critical minerals, but the supply gaps mentioned earlier have only had an impact further down the chain. “You need to ask yourself why Tesla is buying land in Nevada for lithium,” Frastai adds. “Downstream, they are dealing with manufacturing batteries and electric cars, and then they go all the way upstream to buy land? It’s not because they’re great miners or they know exploration – it’s because they are frustrated that they are not able to secure the raw materials they need.” VerAI doesn’t intend to set itself up as a miner,
either, preferring to keep its focus on the problems at hand. “The advantage of our technology is that it tells us where to put the drills, but not how to drill,” summarises Frastai. The company instead intends to stay lean, serving as a project generator that will have a stake in the assets it generates, but it is not a miner, a developer or an explorer in and of itself. “By doing this, it’s allowed us as a business to scale and grow very rapidly, focusing on our competitive advantage of targeting better, faster and cheaper than the traditional industry.” Mineral exploration was long overdue an attempt at disruption, and while VerAI and many of the other players in the AI exploration space are smaller fry, big fish in the mining industry such as Rio Tinto have also begin investing in this technology. And with the demands for critical minerals only set to grow in the coming years and decades, it’s not hard to see why – if all the easily locatable deposits have already been identified, it’s inevitable that AI and other new technologies will need to be brought in to track down new sources. The human mind, after all, is not well suited for finding a needle in a haystack – AI, however, can pinpoint it just fine. ●
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Failing to drill at the right spot from the start further contributes to mining’s serious environmental impact.
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