Earth AI, an AI-driven mineral exploration company, has raised $20m (A$31.97m) in an oversubscribed Series B funding round.
The funding, led by Tamarack Global and Cantos Ventures, will bolster its AI and drilling technology.
Overmatch, Alpaca, Sparkwave Capital and existing investors such as Y Combinator and Scrum Ventures also participated.
The new funding will support Earth AI's plans to expand its project pipeline to more than 50 sites and increase its drilling capacity to 100,000m at a competitive cost of approximately $100/m.
Earth AI founder and CEO Roman Teslyuk said: “Despite the tremendous global need for mineral resources for everything from the energy transition to day-to-day life, new mineral deposit discoveries are notorious for being expensive and time-consuming.
"Earth AI is changing this paradigm using its proprietary AI and drilling technology that has already made verified discoveries in greenfield regions. This new round of funding will be critical to expanding our operations and establishing a pipeline of attractive new mining projects for the industry."
Founded in 2017, Earth AI uses its AI-powered Mineral Targeting Platform to identify mineral resources at a fraction of traditional costs.
The company's model involves identifying mineral deposits using AI, validating them through drilling and subsequently selling mining rights to mining companies.
Earth AI's proprietary mobile low disturbance drilling technology has achieved a discovery success rate of 75%, significantly higher than the industry's average of 0.5%.
The company's predictive technology utilises continental-scale data sets and satellite remote sensing to identify greenfield prospects, distinguishing it from other exploration technologies that focus on existing mines.
This positions Earth AI as a crucial partner in meeting the growing demand for critical minerals due to the global energy transition.
Tamarack Global managing partner Jamie Lee said: "We are always attracted to companies operating in large addressable markets like critical minerals that have found unique ways to create superior cost structures and defensibility in their approach.
“Earth AI fits squarely within this target and has already proven industry leading success rates using their AI engine, the Mineral Targeting Platform, which we believe to be the best trained model amongst any other players in the space. We are very excited to lead this round and believe the future is very bright for this incredible company."
The global demand for critical minerals is projected to reach $10trn by 2050, necessitating a 30-fold increase in current production levels.
Recent discoveries by Earth AI include a large greenfield palladium mineral system in Australia with Legacy Minerals in November 2024 and a new gold system in Willow Glen, New South Wales, in December 2024.
