KoBold used AI to characterize the Mingomba copper deposit

Benefits

Benefit: KoBold Africa chief executive Mfikeyi Makayi described work at Mingomba in a first-person account in PwC’s October 2024 Zambia mining report. She reported that data science helped the team target areas with substantial copper grade and thickness. The work combined historical exploration, drilling, geoscience, and computing. She also described decades of exploration before KoBold entered the project. The IEA later characterized the work as AI-assisted resource assessment. Neither account provides a controlled comparison or quantified AI-specific savings. Mingomba should not be presented as a deposit first discovered by AI. [1] [2]
Category: Improved Knowledge Discovery
Status: reported [1] [2]
Beneficiary groups: Organizations.
Expected?: Yes
Outcome identifiers: Not assessed
Beneficiaries: Not assessed
Reach: Not assessed
Distribution and access: Not assessed
Duration: Not assessed
Costs and harms: Not assessed

AI system

System: KoBold geological prediction and exploration systems [1] [2]
Application developer: KoBold Metals
Workflow: Historical information, new drilling, data science, and geologists’ decisions were combined.
Relation to AI: AI and data science contributed to a workflow that also used historical exploration data, drilling, and expert judgment. The separate contribution was not quantified.
AI contribution: AI and data science contributed to a workflow that also used historical exploration data, drilling, and expert judgment. The separate contribution was not quantified. [1] [2]
Model: Not assessed
Release: Not assessed
Role: Not assessed
Configuration: Not assessed
Inputs and outputs: Not assessed
Autonomy: Not assessed
Human oversight: Not assessed

Measurement

Studies: Not assessed
Study design: Not assessed
Measurement: Not assessed
Setting and sample: Not assessed
Measures: Not assessed
Comparison: Not assessed
Results: Not assessed
Additional value from AI: Not assessed
Limitations: Not assessed
Denominators: Not assessed
Materials for replication: Not assessed

Money

Kind of value: Not assessed
Amount: Not assessed
Currency and prices: Not assessed
Period and unit: Not assessed
Realization: Not assessed
Recipients and payers: Not assessed
Gross or net: Not assessed
Included costs: Not assessed
Comparison: Not assessed
Method: Not assessed
Return and payback: Not assessed

People and places

Participants: Developer: KoBold Metals. Operator: KoBold Metals and Mingomba Mining Limited.
Jurisdictions: Benefit: Chililabombwe District, Copperbelt Province, Zambia. Developer: United States. Operator: Zambia.
Ownership and control: Not assessed
Dependencies: Not assessed
Cross-border connections: Not assessed
Geopolitical implications: Not assessed

Follow-up

Conditions for replication: The reviewed sources do not establish causal conditions or an effect size for reproducing the benefit.
Replication attempts: Not assessed
Later findings: Not assessed
Availability: Not assessed
Institutional decision: Not assessed
Grounds: Not assessed
Action and result: Not assessed
Success criterion: Not assessed

Evidence

Source numbers: Recorded value
Citations: Recorded value [1] [2]
Source relationships: Recorded value [1] [2]
Original evidence: The source review separates original evidence from repeated accounts and records material access limits. [1] [2]
Access and versions: Recorded value [1] [2]
Evidence links: Recorded value [1] [2]
Evidence strength: Recorded value
Language: Not assessed
Supported findings: Not assessed
Missing evidence: Not assessed

Grades

Assessed benefits: Organizations.
Reasons: Organizations: The reviewed sources do not establish the magnitude of the benefit.
Observed or intended: Reported benefits.
Fill: The deployer's account
Depth: Not assessed
Rubric: Not assessed
Assessor and date: Not assessed
Alternative assessments: Not assessed

Entry details

Field: Mining and mineral exploration. Copper resource characterization.
Purpose: The system supports geologists in choosing where to collect data and how to characterize mineral resources. [1] [2]
Dates: Recorded value
Stage: Exploration and resource characterization. [1] [2]
Version: ac6b524a8a78a6fcda2f5b90df79bec31e31935638bbf842e3cc178e36b3f402
Kind: Not assessed
Related entries: Not assessed

References

Other identifiers: Recorded value
Revisions: 1 revisions. Latest: 27 October 2026.
Category mappings: Not assessed
Brief: Not assessed

Sources

Descriptive report Deployer

Makayi, Mfikeyi. A First-Hand Perspective on Exploration, Part 2. In PwC, Zambia 2024 Mining Report, third edition, October 2024, pp. 20–22.

The KoBold Africa CEO reports the role of data science in targeting copper grade and thickness and describes the prior exploration history. A First-Hand Perspective on Exploration, Part 2, pp. 20–22; Exploration at Mingomba subsection on p. 21.

Original firsthand company account within a PwC publication; publisher identity does not make the account independent.

Contemporaneous primary chronology check; not counted as an additional benefit evaluation. Confirms an announcement in December 2022 concerning investment in an existing named deposit. Dated headline and announcement paragraph.

Contemporaneous primary chronology check; not counted as an additional benefit evaluation.
Descriptive report Independent author Context or contrary evidence

International Energy Agency. Energy and AI. April 10, 2025. Box 3.2, pp. 121–122; referenced source on p. 286.

Adds an intermediary description of targeted data collection, a 2020 Lubambe concept study, and the limits of interpreting the work as a new discovery. Box 3.2, pp. 121–122; Lobito bibliography entry on p. 286.

Intermediary narrative, retained for methodological context and historical qualification, not as an independent measurement.

Reviewed intermediary cited by IEA; not retained as separate supporting evidence and not used for disputed ownership chronology. An upstream source for the IEA’s deposit description. It cautions against calling the project a new discovery but contains a 2018 acquisition assertion that conflicts with contemporaneous company material. Paragraphs about prior discovery and ownership; first published February 6, 2024, updated May 14, 2024.

Reviewed intermediary cited by IEA; not retained as separate supporting evidence and not used for disputed ownership chronology.

Contemporaneous primary chronology check; not counted as an additional benefit evaluation. Confirms an announcement in December 2022 concerning investment in an existing named deposit. Dated headline and announcement paragraph.

Contemporaneous primary chronology check; not counted as an additional benefit evaluation.

Uninspected upstream context; no claims are based solely on its search excerpt. Potential original context for the pre-KoBold exploration history. The underlying 2020 concept study itself was not obtained. Linked presentation; attempted retrieval returned server errors.

Uninspected upstream context; no claims are based solely on its search excerpt.