Earth AI is vertically integrating the search for critical minerals

A model is only as good as its data, and for Roman Teslyuk, the data wasn’t coming fast enough. “I hate delays,” Teslyuk, founder and CEO of Earth AI, told TechCrunch. For the last few years, Earth AI has been searching for critical minerals like copper, platinum, and palladium in parts of Australia where no one thought there would be any. The startup’s AI models suggested a few spots that have proven themselves promising, but locating rock with the highest concentration of minerals has been slower than Teslyuk would like. The problem, he said, was the labs. “Since we ramped up the drilling capacity, we started getting these massive delays,” he said. Typically, labs that process rock samples for evidence of critical minerals have backlogs of around two months, Teslyuk said. But lately, as interest in developing new sources has jumped, the delays have more than doubled. “We’re 7 km behind — 7,000 meters of samples we don’t have data about.” So Earth AI is setting up its own labs instead, the startup exclusively told TechCrunch, hoping to bring the time down from five months to five days. Earth AI’s models have been good at highlighting areas with the potential to develop into a mine, Teslyuk said, but once those have been identified, the startup still needs to drill to confirm what minerals lie below and how they’re distributed. Subsurface exploration has come a long way, but there’s still no replacement for drilling. …