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KoBold Metals, a coalition of billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, will commit US$150 million to develop Ming’omba copper-cobalt mine in Zambia.
This project is believed to be a new discovery in Zambia’s Chililabombwe mining town and is said to be the world’s highest-grade undeveloped large deposit of orange metal.
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The start-up, which has Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures and the world’s top miner BHP Mining giant as shareholders, will use its artificial intelligence tools to process drilling data and optimize exploration for copper and cobalt at Ming’omba.
KoBold is buying into what will be a joint venture with the existing owners of the project Australian private equity firm EMR Capital and Zambia’s state-owned mining investment vehicle ZCCM IH, according to Mining.com.
Mingo’mba contains 247 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 3.64 percent copper.
This figure represents about six times higher grades than those found in Chile, the world’s top copper producing nation, according to KoBold.
The mine development would be a major win for Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema, who has set an ambitious copper production target of three million tonnes a year by 2032, from around 850,000 tonnes the country produces at the moment.
“Our message to the world is that Zambia is here, and is open for business,” Hichilema said on Wednesday at the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C
“This investment today is not about KoBold, it’s not about ZCCM, it’s not about Zambia, it’s about all of these, and the rest of the world, as we grapple with climate change,” he said.
The investment deal, which will grant KoBold a majority stake in Ming’omba, is set to close in the first quarter of 2023.
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