KoBold Metals is investing in battery metal projects using big data and scientific computing with capital from billionaires including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos.
The privately held California-based company has also lured David Broughton, the world-renowned expert in sediment-hosted copper deposits, to lead its hydrothermal systems team.
Among the team are Jake Edman, director of machine learning, a data scientist and atmospheric physicist who has a PhD in earth and planetary science; Jessica Kirkpatrick, who earned a PhD in astrophysics and Elizabeth Main, who has a PhD in physics, who are directors of data science; and Peter Lightfoot, magmatic systems lead, who spent 20 years as a geologist with Inco and Vale and was a member of the team that made major discoveries in every one of the cobalt-producing nickle-copper sulphide deposits in Canada.