DRC: American company KoBold relies on AI in the race for lithium

In Manono, southeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, American company KoBold Metals is exploring underground resources for lithium using predictive models based on geological data, old drilling records, and satellite images. Founded in 2018 with backing from investors like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, KoBold has obtained fourteen exploration permits covering over 3,000 km² in DRC since 2025 and plans to invest over 50 million dollars by early 2027. Its teams collect an average of 2,000 soil samples weekly to identify the geochemical signature of pegmatites that may contain lithium.