Earth AI is celebrating the discovery of a rare indium mineralisation using the company’s unique exploration technology that it’s putting through its paces in rural NSW.
“It’s incredibly exciting to find something as rare as indium,” said Earth AI CEO and founder Roman Teslyuk.
“Armed with the new additions to our drill fleet and field team, we are poised to move extremely quickly. Our next era of exploration will see a constant stream of similar developments.
Indium is a critical mineral that’s usually extracted while processing zinc ore. It’s commonly used to make flat-panel displays and solar panels but is also part of the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain.
China produces most (around 65%) of the world’s indium, according to US data, followed by South Korea and Japan. The US did not produce any indium of its own in 2022 or 2023.
Indium is on Australia’s critical minerals list as a resource with ‘moderate’ geological potential yet there is no local data on local production.
In February, responding to tariffs put in place by US President Donald Trump, China restricted exports of indium] and four other critical minerals commonly used in defense and energy technologies.
The indium was found in Earth AI’s fully-owned Kooranjie tenement in Central West NSW, about 500km northwest of Sydney.
“We are at the dawn of the critical metals race, and Earth AI is charging ahead,” said Teslyuk.
“The timing couldn’t be better, as the world has increasingly taken notice of the importance of critical minerals in global geopolitics.”
Earth AI uses longitudinal geological data to find areas with high potential to for minerals like gold, copper, lithium, and indium. It then uses proprietary drilling tech to prope 2km² ‘hot zones’ and confirm the size and scale of the deposit. Once the precision deposits are validated, Earth AI sells the mining rights.
The company is trying to disrupt mining by conducting highly accurate, targeted, low impact mining explorations for a minimal cost.
Earth AI company was spun out of the University of Sydney’s incubator program and backed by Blackbird and Airtree in 2017.
Earlier this year, it picked up an oversubscribed $20 million series B round led by Tamarack Global and Cantos Ventures. Its list of current investors include Y Combinator, which jumped onto the funding round.
At the time, Tamarack Global managing partner Jamie Lee said Earth AI was best in class when it comes to AI-based mining exploration.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
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