➤ Well-capitalized mining companies are more likely to work on a long-term timeline similar to Silicon Valley's approach.
➤ New tech is seen as high risk for miners.
➤ Mining and Silicon Valley could be a strong collaboration.

California-based ExploreTech is a technology company providing computing services to the mining industry. The startup was founded by two Stanford University graduates and is partnered with Prismo Metals Inc. and Reyna Silver Corp., among others.

ExploreTech co-founder and president Tyler Hall was a member of Stanford's Mineral-X program, an industrial affiliates program focused on technological innovation within the critical mineral supply chain to support global decarbonization. The program is partially funded by Silicon Valley mining venture KoBold Metals Co. and diversified miner Rio Tinto PLC.

S&P Global Commodity Insights interviewed ExploreTech's Hall on the sidelines of the New York Section of the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration's Current Trends in Mining Finance Conference 2024 in New York on May 21 about the mining industry's reluctance to adopt new technology, the role Silicon Valley can play in mining and how to bridge the gap between the two worlds. The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

S&P Global Commodity Insights: Is the mining industry willing to adopt new technology?

Tyler Hall: The mining industry can be somewhat skeptical about adopting new technology. And that's for a good reason, because mining is extremely challenging. The impacts of taking technological risk might be higher in mining compared to other industries. When you're using a new technology, it is very important to understand its impact on human safety and also environmental safety.

As for adopting new technologies, they need to be proven. And what we've seen is that mining companies and people in the mining industry generally don't want to get involved that much in the pre-seed or seed stage. The most successful companies that I've found have been able to develop a strong unit economics case from the start. Those companies do exist. They can be somewhat hard to find.

Sometimes, innovation timelines don't align with when shareholder returns are expected. Some companies in the mining space need to be able to generate shareholder returns within months. There are select juniors that really want to use technologies in order to make better decisions in their own operations.

Often, we see the most success in very well-capitalized companies that are in it for the long term. And the long term is like a decade-long timeline, which is sort of Silicon Valley's approach. Seven to 10 years down the line, what is going to be the game-changing technology?

What role can Silicon Valley play in the mining industry?

It's like, "Oh, what does Silicon Valley know about mining and technology?" Number one, Silicon Valley knows a lot. There are a ton of people with a wealth of experience, and the operational style is very unique. If we were to mix with experts in mining — who can understand that we're all in this together rather than [being] adversarial — that's where the biggest growth is going to be.

You can see this in the success of companies that have recently come out of Silicon Valley ... Jetti Resources LLC is one and KoBold Metals Co. is another. These are companies that have been able to blend the expertise of the mining industry and the mindset of Silicon Valley in order to take the best of both so that you end up with something that's greater than the sum of its parts.

I think it's going to take some time in order to build those relationships, partnerships and businesses that are able to amplify each other.

How do we bridge the gap between the two industries?

It's totally possible. It just takes strategy, communication and everybody to be aligned — right now. We have these ambitious goals getting to net-zero [emissions]. Even to meet the "business as usual," technology is going to play a role and innovation is going to play a role.

Connecting with [the right] kind of people is really important and understanding where they are in this space. And that's one thing that I've been really happy to be able to contribute to, bridging this gap, because there is a gap. And the better that it can be bridged, the faster we can achieve these really ambitious goals.

This is truly what I see as my role in life, [ask] how can we bring the best technologies to great projects that can benefit as fast as possible because that's what we need to do. And how can we build a great team and community around it.