AI Digs Deep: How Earth AI is Changing Mining Forever

Earth AI’s machine learning cuts mineral discovery from years to months 

1 Dec 2024

The ancient business of mining is acquiring a new kind of pickaxe: artificial intelligence. Earth AI, a Sydney-based startup, has located a significant deposit of palladium, platinum, and nickel in southeastern Australia not with drills, but with data.

This is more than a fortunate strike. It signals a methodical rethinking of mineral exploration. Rather than trudging across landscapes with geological maps, Earth AI uses satellite imagery and machine learning to forecast likely mineral zones. Its founder, Max Frechette, claims this approach compresses years of fieldwork into mere months. “AI lets us compress what used to be a years-long process into a matter of months, with less cost and impact,” he says.

Timing is on Earth AI’s side. As the energy transition quickens, the demand for battery-grade metals is booming. Electric vehicles, hydrogen fuel cells and renewable-energy storage systems all depend on secure and scalable access to such minerals. But traditional mining methods are expensive, invasive and slow. Australia, already a heavyweight in lithium, is keen to expand its role in supplying other critical metals to Western allies eager to diversify away from China.

The implications extend beyond Earth AI. The Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre, a government-backed body, sees algorithmic exploration as a harbinger of broader change. Investors are taking note. Digital prospecting reduces costs and environmental risk, and may help Australia market itself not just as a resource-rich country but as a resource-smart one.

Still, the algorithms are only as good as the data they feed on. Much of Australia’s geological data is patchy or inconsistent. And the mining sector, famously conservative, does not always welcome change. Some worry that over-reliance on AI could overlook geological nuance or produce false positives.

Yet the payoff is too large to ignore. If successful at scale, AI-led exploration could make it easier and cleaner to find the metals that a green economy demands. In a world racing to electrify, smarter mining may prove every bit as essential as smarter batteries.