
Kurt House
CEO: KoBold Metals
‘We’ve had plenty of conversations with people who will be associated with the next administration who are very enthusiastic about KoBold’s mission’
KOBOLD Metals is probably like no other mining exploration and development company we’ve written about. That’s because AI is its competitive advantage rather than, well, digging and hoping for the best. Unsurprisingly, it has Silicon Valley heavyweights Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos as backers and can therefore probably afford its 34 directors and chief leads. These include a chief philosopher as one director, who brings “physical intuition in scientific discovery” to the corporate skills set.
In line with Gates’s interest in healing the planet, KoBold is searching globally for metals but for now the focus is on Zambia where it is investigating Mingomba, a copper project scoped to produce 300,000 tons a year from the 2030s. KoBold raised an astonishing $537m in its most recent funding round of which 40% will be ploughed into Mingomba. House told the Financial Times recently that he would like to “add at least three jurisdictions” including Finland and Botswana. He was excited about the prospects for lithium mining in Canada. The plan is to hire “aggressively” and add data scientists who have a more traditional technology background to its teams, as well as geoscientists to survey possible deposits and collect data.
The company was likely to go public within three to five years, he added. US venture capital group Andreessen Horowitz participated in the recent fundraising, along with new backers including private capital group StepStone. House claims he has no fears about possible opposition from the Donald Trump presidency in the US as its associates are keen to support the company, notwithstanding its electric vehicle affinity.
LIFE OF KURT
Kurt House is a proper boffin. He previously held teaching and research positions at Stanford University and MIT. He received a BA in physics from the Claremont Colleges and a PhD in applied mathematics and Earth science from Harvard University. Where normally mining engineering is the traditional requirement of a mining company CEO, Kurt has instead founder credits for a carbon sequestration and enhanced oil recovery company. He has also worked in private equity and corporate consulting at Bain & Company.