MinersAI

MinersAI is an early-stage company that applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to geoscience data for the mineral exploration industry. Its platform and tools standardize, clean and structure geological data and then run analytics and prospectivity models so explorers can test hypotheses and identify targets. The company describes its offering as a data platform providing data and AI-driven prospectivity analysis for exploration, alongside data and AI-driven project screening and due diligence tools for financiers.

The company's stated approach treats AI models as advanced statistical methods that require expert supervision, positioning geologists "in the loop" alongside the technology, and emphasizes that data preparation — structuring, cleaning, QC, feature engineering and standardization — represents up to 80% of the work. MinersAI frames its market rationale around the energy transition's rising demand for copper, nickel, cobalt and rare earths, and the low base rate of exploration success, which it puts at roughly 5% of projects leading to valuable discoveries. Its founders have also described an ambition to become a platform and marketplace where mineral exploration companies can find, analyze, buy and sell geological data.

The team is composed of geologists, data scientists and software developers, with roles including CEO, CPO, Chief Revenue Officer, Head of Engineering, project and data-model leads, ML geodata scientists, geodata engineers and geologists.

Founding story

MinersAI was created in July 2023. Co-founders Thomas-Louis (Tomi) de Lophem and Mason Dykstra met at a mining conference in Toronto and began discussing how their respective skill sets could address the mineral supply constraints facing the energy transition. They analysed the root causes of the projected critical-minerals supply crunch, mapped the industry, and after discussions with mining and junior exploration companies concluded that there was a market gap in easily available, analytics-ready geological data — the gap the company was founded to fill. The founders also cite a second concern: that many current extraction sites are in geographies where ESG standards are not a priority.

Business model

MinersAI provides a software platform and AI tooling to mineral exploration companies and to financiers of exploration projects, with its own team of geoscientists working alongside customers on data structuring, hypothesis testing and analysis. The company has also described an aim to operate as a marketplace where exploration companies can find, analyze, buy and sell geological data. Customer engagement on the website is organized around demo requests.

Traction

Published case studies cover a copper prospectivity project across the Torrens region of South Australia combining 28 public datasets (consensus out-of-fold ROC-AUC of 0.69), a copper prospectivity model across 110,000 km² of southeastern Arizona's Laramide porphyry belt integrating 25 datasets, and a gold prospectivity model for Val-d'Or, Québec integrating 20 datasets and tested across a 6,600 km² area. The team listed on the company site numbers 14 people. The founders have described interest from both the investment community and customers, and field work with partner company Edelweiss Resources in Austria.

Latest developments

The company has published a series of prospectivity case studies — southern Arizona and Torrens (South Australia) copper, and Val-d'Or (Québec) gold — and articles on AI adoption in mining following the Resourcing Tomorrow conference in London, authored by co-founders Tomi de Lophem and Mason Dykstra.