AI-backed mineral exploration technology firm KoBold Metals says it will use a big chunk of the US$537 million raised in its latest private funding to advance development of a copper mine in Zambia while it presumably also maintains its circa-$100 million a year search for new deposits in an expanding property portfolio.
The US-based company, backed by heavyweight investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy, is reportedly investing $2 billion with the Zambian government in the Mingomba copper project – previously known as the Lubambe Extension Project – near the established, Chinese-controlled Lubambe mine in the country’s north.
Details are extremely thin on the ground, but various reports have repeated KoBold’s claims of a “resource” at Mingomba of about 247 million tonnes grading an average 3.64% copper.
KoBold only acquired its 80% stake in the project from Australia’s EMR Capital in 2023 and last year said it had overseen about 50,000m of drilling at the property. ZCCM Investments Holdings, controlled by the Zambian government, has the other 20% of Mingomba.
KoBold, which has now raised about $1 billion since its formation in 2018, provides detailed social public “updates” on the project but discloses little technical information.
A Zambian government statement in the middle of 2024 promoted the importance of Mingomba in its ambitious plan to lift national annual copper output to c3 million tonnes by 2030.
Mingomba was “projected to be Zambia’s biggest copper mine once fully operational”, the statement said.
“This is due to the high grade of ore and the immense size of the deposit that has been discovered following a comprehensive exploration campaign by KoBold.
“Statistics show that the best 100 million tonnes of ore rock have an average grade of 8% copper, the best 200Mt of ore rock have an average grade of 4.8% copper and the best 300Mt of ore rock have an average grade of 3.8% copper.
“These figures are not static as more geological data will be collected once a shaft is sunk and the exploitation of the orebody begins.”
Shaft sinking could start in 2026, according to KoBold.
The company’s CEO and co-founder Kurt House told selected media in the past week about 40% of new funding would be spent on “developing existing projects into mines, with the Zambian copper project taking the lion’s share of that”.
New investor, Maryland, US-based venture capital firm Durable Capital Partners, and T Rowe Price, led the $537 million series C round which reportedly valued KoBold at $2.96 billion.
Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz Growth, BOND, Breakthrough Energy, Earthshot Ventures, Equinor, July Fund, Mitsubishi Corporation and Standard Investments participated, along with other new investors such as StepStone Group and WCM Investment Management.
