interest in new technologies that can help strengthen supply chains is growing<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cOur technology helps open new geographies [to secure critical metals], diversify targets for deposit exploration, and reinforce the quality and resilience of supply chains,\u201d says Lithosquare founder and CEO Aymeric Pr\u00e9veral-Etcheverry.<\/p>\n
Foundational model based on multimodal data\u00a0<\/p>\n
To find critical metals deposits, geologists typically rely on machine learning tools called pattern-recognition models, which identify potential sites in satellite imagery and geological data based on the characteristics of deposits that have already been discovered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problem with this is that you\u2019re only looking for what you\u2019ve already found,\u201d says Pr\u00e9veral-Etcheverry. \u201cAnd we need to find more sites and new sites […] New types of deposits, which are deeper, in places where we\u2019ve never been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pr\u00e9veral-Etcheverry says Lithosquare has \u201cencoded\u201d geological science in a foundational AI model, trained with multimodal data including maps, textual reports and surveys, and geophysical data like magnetism and radioactivity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve developed an AI platform capable of helping geologists as they reason, test new hypotheses and search where they\u2019ve never been,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
The company says the technology reduces analysis timelines from months to days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Commercialising the technology<\/p>\n
Lithosquare is seeing increasing demand for its product, in part driven by growing sovereignty imperatives. In 2023, the EU passed the Critical Raw Materials (CRM) Act, setting a number of goals to hit by 2030 including growing domestic production to at least 10% of consumption and diversifying the source of imports.<\/p>\n
The startup\u2019s customers are mining companies, says Pr\u00e9veral-Etcheverry, largely based in Europe and North America, with operations in the Middle East, South America and Africa. Last year Lithosquare announced its first public partnership, a joint venture with UK-based mining company Aterian to apply AI to eight exploration projects in Morocco and Botswana.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As part of the partnership, Aterian made an initial \u20ac500k investment for the identification of copper and critical metals deposits by using AI, part of which was secured as revenue by Lithosquare.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The company is working with a handful of other customers, which are not yet public.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lithosquare typically takes an upfront baseline payment for the exploration and identification of deposits, with future payments based on outcomes. It also expects to implement revenue-sharing agreements on future mines. The startup declined to share its latest revenues.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next?<\/p>\n
Pr\u00e9veral-Etcheverry says the next few months will see Lithosquare double the size of its team to 40 employees and open a new office in North America to boost commercialisation.<\/p>\n
There are big competitors on the other side of the Atlantic, like Kobold Metals, which builds a similar technology and last year raised a $537m Series C at a $3bn valuation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a few big players but we\u2019re in line to reinforce our leadership in Europe and then globally,\u201d says Pr\u00e9veral-Etcheverry. \u201cThe ambition is huge.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lithosquare, a Paris-based startup leveraging AI to accelerate the discovery and identification of critical metals deposits across the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[220,218,219,61,60,189105,80],"class_list":["post-433261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-startup-fundraise","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}