Brisbane-based mining tech startup Plotlogic has raised $43 million in a Series B funding round to continue its expansion into North America and boost investment in R&D, as demand grows for the critical minerals fueling the global energy transition.
The company, founded by engineer and former mining executive Dr Andrew Job in 2018, has developed proprietary sensing technology that uses artificial intelligence to generate “highly accurate ore characterisation predictions”.
Mining giants BHP, Vale, and South32, as well as lithium company Pilbara Minierals, are already using the technology to increase the extraction of critical minerals and metals, reducing costs and energy usage in the process.
Co-led by climate-focused investment platform Galvanize Climate Solutions and Schneider Electric’s VC arm, SE Ventures, the Series B funding round will be used to “bolster commercialisation and invest in additional R&D”, while continuing to expand into the North American market.
Existing investors Innovation Endeavors, which led Plotlogic’s $18 million Series A in 2022, and DCVC, which led the seed round, also pitched in, as did GRIDS Capital and Bentley iTwin Ventures.
Main Sequence also participated in the round via its newly launched Main Sequence Three fund, which invests in companies that are tacking six major planetary challenges. Last week, the CSIRO-based firm said it had raised $450 million for the fund.
Dr Job said that with recycling only likely to “meet a fraction of the demand for essential commodities”, continued mining would be “essential” moving forward, and that the “increased adoption of advanced technologies like ours” would help achieve greater sustainability.
But with new mines taking up to 17 years to develop and discovering new deposits a “challenging task”, he said Plotlogic was allowing customers to “mine more selectively, efficiently and sustainably”.
“Plotlogic is actively contributing to the pursuit of a clean energy future by enabling existing mines to extract every vestige of value right now in an environmentally sensitive way,” Dr Job said on Monday.
“We developed the OreSense technology with the firm belief that mining should be able to generate the resources society needs without harming the planet. The feedback from our customers is that we are delivering on that vision.”
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