Automation, exploration, mineral processing and new-energy technology funding has fuelled a surge over the past four years in private equity financing that has seen more than US$3.2 billion poured into the mining-tech space in that time.
Twenty-five companies that have led private – and some public – equity funding in those big four areas raised more than $2.4 billion between 2019 and the end of 2023: about 75% of the total raised by mining-tech firms in the period.
Direct lithium extraction (DLE) methods, AI-based mineral exploration data interrogation platforms, construction and mining robotics, and auto-mobility sensors, controls and software, and hydrogen and lithium-based energy systems, have roused investors the most.
