EARTH AI Scripts New Chapter in AI-Based Mineral Exploration

AI-powered mineral deposit exploration platform, EARTH AI has announced $2.5 million funding from Gagarin Capital, the VC firm specializing in AI, and Y Combinator. With this funding, the AI start-up has to be recognized as one of the fastest-growing mineral exploration companies in the world. With its AI technology, miners and geology companies can predict the location of new ore bodies far cheaper, faster, and with more precision than previous methods.

Previously, EARTH AI raised $1.7 million in two seed rounds from AirTree Ventures and Blackbird Ventures and high-net-worth angel investors. The new round will help the company continue to pursue its mission of fundamentally improving the efficiency of mineral exploration with the help of cutting-edge technology.

The Brain Behind EARTH AI’s Data Science

EARTH AI is a full-stack mineral exploration and mining company, it has built a proprietary mineral targeting technology able to predict the location of new mineral deposits 50X better than the traditional exploration methods. The company has vertically field operations throughout all stages of mineral exploration, from geological mapping to drone-based geophysical surveying and exploration drilling.

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In their official catalog, EARTH AI explains how they train Machine Learning (ML) algorithm with data from all over the world.

It states —

“We process various satellite datasets from NASA and feed them into our pre-trained ML models. Innovative AI solutions can be generated anywhere in the world where a mineral is likely to exist. We then use the ML outputs, such as probability maps and cluster maps, to guide our field work targets. Based on field work results, such as PXRF and geochem, we can re-enforce the ML models in an iterative process.”

More specifically, EARTH AI’s technology uses Machine Learning techniques on global data, including remote sensing, radiometry, geophysical and geochemical datasets, to learn the data signatures related to industrial metal deposits (from gold, copper, and lead to rare earth elements), train a neural network, and predict where high-value mineral prospects will be. EARTH AI can discover, stake, and drill-test brand new mining regions—a crucial task for growing industrial development worldwide. Demand for these minerals continues to grow rapidly from the technology sector, yet existing mines are becoming depleted and will be unable to secure the future supply.

EARTH AI first drill program made history, confirming the world’s first mineral deposit discovered by AI. It contains Lead and Vanadium, the latter is used in building Vanadium Redox Batteries that increasingly used for bulk energy storage for large industrial applications. The company has secured exclusive mineral rights for 18 prospective sites, predicted by its technology.

AI Accelerates Mineral Exploration 50X

EARTH AI founder and CEO Roman Teslyuk said, “EARTH AI has huge ambitions, and this funding round will supercharge us towards reaching our milestones. Gagarin has built and supported a strong community of AI experts and top-in-class engineers, and we’re excited to join that community.”

In 2018, EARTH AI field-tested remote unexplored areas and ended up with ground-breaking 50X better success rate than traditional exploration methods, while spending on average $11,000 per prospect discovery; in Australia, companies often spend several million dollars to arrive at the same result.

“EARTH AI is taking a novel approach to a large and important industry — and that approach is already showing tremendous promise”, Mikhail Taver, Partner at Gagarin Capital said.

Mikhail added, “We believe EARTH AI is on track to become the world’s largest mineral exploration company, discovering and partially owning the majority of new metal mines, and are excited to contribute the funds and AI expertise needed to make that a reality.”

Jared Friedman, Y Combinator partner, said, “At YC, we are particularly excited by new applications of artificial intelligence. The possibility of discovering new mineral deposits with AI is a fascinating and thought-provoking idea. Earth AI has the potential not just to become an incredibly profitable company, but to reduce the cost of the metals we need to build our civilization, and that has huge implications for the world?”

EARTH AI was founded by Roman Tesyluk, a geoscientist with eight years of mineral exploration and academic experience. Prior to starting EARTH AI, he was a Ph.D. Candidate at The University of Sydney, Australia and obtained a Master’s degree in Geology from Ivan Franko University, Ukraine. A member of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, he won the Ukrainian Geology Olympiad in 2013 and was the first person in Australia to receive Entrepreneur Visa 188E.

Currently, EARTH AI is conducting fieldwork in remote greenfields areas of Australia working alongside the AI system to find new mineral prospects. It had also developed a UAV-based magnetic data acquisition system. It formed a fully certified 2 drone pilot team to conduct high-precision magnetic surveys on our prospects.

Its main competitors are:

• KoBold Metals
• GoldSpot Discoveries

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